Fuji-san
I’ve often wondered why Fuji-san is so revered in Japan. It’s a puzzling thing how a big chunk of rock can be the focus of so much attention.
Fuji-san is not Mt. Arat or even Mt. Everest. In the big scheme of things it shouldn’t really stand up there with the others, but it does.
If I really think about it, the only assumption that I can come up with is that like a thousand other things that are “over-hyped” in Japan. I mean, when you really think about it some of the quintessentially Japanese wonders are often not unique to Japan. Instead, they can be seen the whole world over. We’re coming towards the end of the season now, but cherry blossom viewings, or hanami, are the number one example of this:
(image from www.flickr.com/photos/cktse/73242318/)
Sakura (cherry blossom) exists the world around; the Japanese donated thousands upon thousands of trees to the United States after the war, Korea has them (according to Wikipedia sakura originated in Korea!) and I even pass a fair few on my way in to Camberley town centre! So why is hanami such a big thing in Japan?
Cherry blossom are a turning point in the Japanese calendar; they mark the end of the wet winter months and the beginning of the stifling hot and humid summer months.
The interlude offered by sakura can be thought of as a brief respite from an otherwise trying climate. This alone is reason enough for the respect offered by the Japanese people, but consider also that sakura is near-clockwork in its ‘life’ and ‘death’. In a land so heavily influenced by the historic class of samurai (lit. to serve) such an ultimately futile existence is sure to ring true.
This brings me back to the main question of why Fuji-san? Up until recently I had no idea… no amount of reading had offered any real insight beyond breaking down the origins of the name, 富士山, which more or less always comes down to neverending/immortal/infinite.
My inspiration to write this blog entry, the first real entry I’ve written for some time, was Fuji-san. I happened across a photograph (it could have been almost any photograph) and instantly I realised the answer to “why Fuji-san?”.
Tags: Life