Fusi-Yama from...
Photograph
Fusi-Yama from...
From the album Photographic Views and Costumes of Japan
ca. 1868
Albumen silver print
21.8 x 28.2 cm.
Purchase
1979.0059.0007
Inscriptions (applied label, printed, opposite page):
FUSI-YAMA FROM ………………………………………….
THIS noble mountain, the highest in the Empire of JAPAN, is situated in the Island of NIPON, in the Province of SARUGA, on the frontier of that of KAI. Its graceful pyramidal peak towers above the surrounding country, and is, according to the measurement of Lieutenant Robinson of the Indian Army, who visited it with Sir Rutherford Alcock, in 1861, 14,177 feet above the level of the sea, in Latitude 35.21 North, and Longitude 138.42 East.
In July and August, the only months of the year when it is sufficiently free from snow to permit of the ascent, it is visited by numerous pilgrims, who flock to its cloud-enveloped shrines in crowds.
Daimios and persons of rank are said to believe it beneath their dignity to perform this pilgrimage; most of the pilgrims are therefore of the middle and lower classes. Their dress is peculiar and distinctive-it is of a white cotton material and is stamped with various mystic characters by the Bonzes, or Priests, who for that purpose principally occupy the small temples round the crater during the season. A dress sometimes performs the journey more than once though worn by different persons, and the more numerous the stamps or evidences of a visit to the mountain the higher is its value in the eyes of a devotee about to undertake the pilgrimage.
In Yedo, Fusi-yama pilgrims dresses may be purchased so old, so dirty, and so much bestamped, as to have lost their original colour and certainly much of their original purity. The origin of the pilgrimage is traced to the time when Sintoo, the founder of the religion of that name, took up his residence in the mountain, and his spirit is supposed to have influence to bestow various blessings.
FUSI-YAMA FROM ………………………………………….
THIS noble mountain, the highest in the Empire of JAPAN, is situated in the Island of NIPON, in the Province of SARUGA, on the frontier of that of KAI. Its graceful pyramidal peak towers above the surrounding country, and is, according to the measurement of Lieutenant Robinson of the Indian Army, who visited it with Sir Rutherford Alcock, in 1861, 14,177 feet above the level of the sea, in Latitude 35.21 North, and Longitude 138.42 East.
In July and August, the only months of the year when it is sufficiently free from snow to permit of the ascent, it is visited by numerous pilgrims, who flock to its cloud-enveloped shrines in crowds.
Daimios and persons of rank are said to believe it beneath their dignity to perform this pilgrimage; most of the pilgrims are therefore of the middle and lower classes. Their dress is peculiar and distinctive-it is of a white cotton material and is stamped with various mystic characters by the Bonzes, or Priests, who for that purpose principally occupy the small temples round the crater during the season. A dress sometimes performs the journey more than once though worn by different persons, and the more numerous the stamps or evidences of a visit to the mountain the higher is its value in the eyes of a devotee about to undertake the pilgrimage.
In Yedo, Fusi-yama pilgrims dresses may be purchased so old, so dirty, and so much bestamped, as to have lost their original colour and certainly much of their original purity. The origin of the pilgrimage is traced to the time when Sintoo, the founder of the religion of that name, took up his residence in the mountain, and his spirit is supposed to have influence to bestow various blessings.
