Prologue

This portfolio contains a number of pictures taken in what we might call the "iconic district" of Japan: the great volcanic mountain--Fuji--and its accompanying lakes. These pictures represent the scenery of the Fuji area at its all-time best. Today the influx of tourists, both Japanese and foreign, have resulted in the over-building and cheapening of views. This entire region is the center of tourism and nostalgic remembrance for eastern Japan--it is where many famous battles and other events in the history of national consolidation took place. Its geographic imagery is reproduced in countless works of art. I have included a variety of pictures of Fuji itself, and the famous Lake Hakone and its shrine.

Fujisan: the term is something of a linguistic trick, san has in this case two meanings: a formal one, as the Japanese pronunciation of the Chinese reading of the character which means "mountain." The purely Japanese reading is "yama," hence, Fujiyama. But, san is also the sound of the standard Japanese suffix more or less equivalent to "Mister," "Miss," etc. So, Fujisan can mean, roughly, "Mr. Fuji, sir." Or the great and honorable symbol of Japan.

It is a great mountain indeed, and also, a live volcano that erupts approximately every 300 years-- and is beginning to rumble a bit as I write this (in 2001). It is also the heart of the tourist industry: the mountain is there for climbing, and thousands do, Japanese and foreign, every year; and there are several lakes around the base, with tourist accommodations galore; great luxury hotels. If Fuji should blow, a lot would go, including perhaps parts of Tokyo only a few miles away.

The pictures in this portfolio include some of my own, and also some from the Japanese Tourist Bureau. I have included some of the town and environs of Hakone, the major resort community on the shores of the lake of the same name. Photos of some of the great hotels are found in Portfolio 10.

Japanese literature contains a plethora of references to the grandeur and mystery of Fuji. It "stands for" Japan, just as Mount Vesuvius does for, at least, southern Italy. And Popcatapetl, the equally symmetrical volcanic cone in Mexico, has a degree of symbolic representation of Mexico. And both of these mountains at the moment of writing have begun modest eruptions.