Photo/Illutration Mount Fuji as seen from Fuji-Kawaguchiko, Yamanashi Prefecture, on Oct. 20, 2021. (Asahi Shimbun file photo)

Seen from a company plane in late December last year, the snow-covered summit of Mount Fuji gleamed in the sun.

In the bowl-shaped crater sat what resembled a colossal tiger with its outstretched paws together, like the Great Sphinx of Giza.

“There is an exotic rock formation (on the summit of Fuji) resembling a crouching tiger,” wrote Miyako no Yoshika (834-879), a Heian Period (794-1185) scholar of Chinese literature.

Looking exactly as described more than 1,000 years ago, the stately “tiger rock” awed me with its dignity.

Mount Fuji erupted a number of times during the Heian Period. An episode in 800 during the Enryaku Era and another in 864 during the Jogan Era were especially violent.

The flowing lava split one huge lake into two, namely Lake Saiko and Lake Shojiko, and also created what became the Aokigahara Jukai forest.

After a long hiatus, Fuji rumbled back to life during the Edo Period (1603-1867). In the Hoei Era eruption of 1707, a pillar of fire rose into the sky and volcanic smoke and ash reached Edo (present-day Tokyo).

Marks left by that catastrophic event can still be found today around Fuji’s fifth station. But to my layman’s eyes, the summit, side and foot of the mountain looked perfectly peaceful.

“I was taught as a child that Mount Fuji was a dormant volcano, but it actually is a young and active volcano that requires close watching,” said Akiko Ichikawa, who served in the past as an official Fuji commentator based in Fujiyoshida, Yamanashi Prefecture.

Indeed, Fuji’s history spans hundreds of thousands of years, if its volcanic predecessor is taken into account.

Put into that context, the 300-year lull since the Edo Period is no more than a short nap, if not just a momentary snooze.

Takahashi no Murajimushimaro, a poet of the Nara Period (710-794), extolled Fuji as a sacred mountain in a piece that went to this effect, “I never tire of gazing at lofty Mount Fuji in Suruga (present-day Shizuoka Prefecture).”

I would love to see a lucky first dream of this new year of the tiger, which will have me mounted on a tiger’s back on the summit of Mount Fuji to hear a declaration of victory over the novel coronavirus pandemic.

--The Asahi Shimbun, Jan. 1

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