Mt. Fuji is a typical stratovolcano* (Konide) with an elevation of 3776 meters. Among the world’s individual peaks, the stratovolcano Mt.Fuji is extraordinary for its size.

The present formation of Mt. Fuji is roughly divided into four stages.
　
1. The first stage, Sen-komitake: the oldest part of the volcano, formed hundreds of thousands of years ago, during the Pleistocene epoch.
2. The second stage, Komitake: a volcanic formation, formed after Sen-Komitake two million to a hundred thousand years ago. Volcanic activity then ceased for tens of thousands of years. 
3. The third stage, Ko-Fuji (Old Fuji): formed from volcanic ash from erupions between 80,000 to 15,000 years ago. This ash accumulated over Komitake Fuji to something less than 3,000 meters above sea level.  
4. The fourth stage, Shin-Fuji (New-Fuji): This period of activity dates from the eighth to the tenth century. The final Shin-Fuji eruption that covered Ko-Fuji occurred on November 23, 1707 in the Edo period. It is known as the Houei Blast.

Mt. Fuji was born 100,000 years ago, and has kept growing with every eruption. 11,000 years ago the crater at the summit moved to west to its present position. Subsequently, large amounts of lava flowed from near the top of the mountain until 8000 years ago; part of it reached as far as the mouth of the River Fuji and Mishima city. It did not, however, flow as far as the east side of Gotenba City or Koyama town at all. Mt. Fuji was once a twin peak volcano with both an older extinct summit to the east and a newer summit to the west which frequently erupted.

However, the old peak at the east side collapsed 2900 years ago. Today’s Gotenba City today is built on the earth and sand from that collapse. Evidence has proved that 90 percent or more of that earth and sand is rock from the old eastern peak.

Mt. Fuji has been regarded as a deity of “calming the country” and as a national treasure since ancient times. It has had a significant influence not only on the Japanese mind but also on the reverence for mountains in the Japanese soul. This combination of the kami?or the spirits that inhabit physical objects, including mountains?and the Buddha mind is the foundation of the fusion of Shintoism and Buddhism found only in Japan.

The Asama belief in worshipping Mt. Fuji from afar to appease the wrath of its eruptions arose at the beginning of the Heian period. By at the end of the Heian, these beliefs included climbing Mt. Fuji for ascetic practices.    

During the Kamakura period climbing the mountain became popular among a class of spiritual practitioners and by the Muromachi period, even ordinary believers could climb the mountain.

In the Edo period, Fuji clubs were popular everywhere and mountain climbers flourished. Mountain climbing by women was allowed in the Meiji period, and Fuji was bustling with sightseeing climbers.

Moreover, Mt. Fuji has had a multi-sided influence on Japanese peoples’ consciousness, while it has had a deep relationship with the Japanese sense of beauty. It has had a close relationship with artistic activities and has been the subject of poetry, paintings, and novels and photography. Mt. Fuji has played an important role in the creation of Japanese culture and continues to this day to create an impression in the minds of people.

Mt. Fuji continues its erosion and rebuilding, while people admire the beauty the mountain today. We should not forget, however, that the shape of the beautiful Mt. Fuji is just a phase of the continually changing flux of nature. 

･The Mt. Fuji primeval forest: It was designated as a natural monument on February 24, 1926.
･The Fuji air hole: It was designated as a natural monument on December 17, 1929.
･Mt. Fuji: It was designated as a special place of scenic beauty on November 22, 1952 
(An exceptional site is designated as a “Special Place of Scenic Beauty.”)

*Stratovolcano: a typical geographical feature that produced when magma deep in the earth’s crust erupts onto the surface or seabed.

Mount Shirane is a part of Joshin’etsu Kogen National Park. Yugama’s surface is an impressive emerald green, so it is popular amongst tourists. The emerald green color because of the influence of the iron ion melting in the lake water and of sulfur and many minerals floating in it. However, if one actually samples water from the lake and holds it to the light, you can’t see its color.

Mount Shirane is an active volcano in the Nasu Volcanic Zone. Eruption records, first recorded in 1805(the year of Bunka 2), indicate that Yugama erupted quite often, including in 1805.

In addition to Yugama, there are Mizugama and Karagama at the peak. In the year of Showa 7, two sulfur miners were killed by eruption rock debris. Seven were injured and volcanic mud also flowed. All over Mount Shirane was famous for the production of sulfur but now the mining has closed. In this area there are many famous hot-spring resorts, Kusatsu, Manza and so on.

We are happy to live in a country with four seasons. Through the changes of the seasons, we Japanese can realize the mutability of life and can feel unconsciously the transmigration of the seasons.

The British missionary, Walter Weston (1861-1940) who visited Japan in Meiji 21(1888) and made “The Japanese Alps” famous in the world, talks about Japan in the book “Take a trip to the unknown Japan” in this way: ‘It is said in the world that humanity is evaluated by the attitude of that person toward nature. If this is correct, the Japanese are unique in the world. Japanese people have naturally a strong attachment to nature, and I have never seen other people where this is so spread out among people.’

Edward S Morse (the American zoologist who discovered “Shell-mound of Ohmori”) wrote in his diary with surprise about all Japanese people’s love for nature as follows: ‘Foreigners, staying in Japan for several months begin to notice such a thing little by little. In other words, regardless of the social position, I thought the Japanese seems to have a good character by nature, compared to the strong moral education in the name of humanity in the U.S.A. Simple clothes, neat houses, clear environment, love for nature, pure and attractive art, polite manners, consideration for other people’s feelings･･･these are characteristics that not only people in the upper social classes but also the poorest people have.’

In the Meiji era, about 1,000 trees were deforested because of the development involved in the modernization. But they came to be protected again for the purpose of public use, and during the Greater East Asia War, only two of them were used as material for the battleships, though many of big trees were deforest.  Due to environmental deterioration and natural damage resulting from typhoons and the advances of modernization about 100 trees fall each year, so protective measures (such as planting roadside trees) are accelerated.  In 1996 (the 8th year of the Heisei era),  an ownership system for the lined cedar trees was started by the Nikko Lined Cedar Trees Protection and the Tochigi Prefecture Cultural Asset Section. They sell one cedar tree for 10 million yen and use the profits to advance the protection of the trees.  The 1992   Guinness Book of World Records holds this route to be  the longest tree-lined road in the world, measuring a length of 37km. In Japan, it is regarded as both a special historic site and a special natural monument –a very precious heritage. The spectacle of trees whose average height is 27m and whose age is 380 years old is extremely magnificent and beautiful, so we can boast to the world.

The noteworthy cedar trees are “Hodan’uchikomisugi (the cedar tree driven with a cannonball)”, which was hitby a bullet when the Shogunate’s army of this region was bombarded in the Boshin War, “Sakurasugi (the cedar tree with a wild cherry tree)” in whose rip a wild cherry tree thrives and blooms beautifully to this day, and “Namikitaro (road side trees Taro)”, which is the oldest tree along the road.

Moreover, parties concerned about the world’s three major groups of cedar trees, the longestin the world “Nikko Highway lined with Japanese cedars”, the oldest “Yaku Japanese cedars” and the largest “Sequoia cedar”(California, U.S.A.), gathered in Imaichi city in 1999. The first “World’s three major cedar trees environmental summit” was held, declaring that “we protect these three major cedar trees as a symbol of measures for preventing global warning and pass them down through the ages.”