First published: 17/06/17.

Tsunami

Fujisan

Fujisan (Inscribed)

Fujisan by Tsunami

Having been born in Japan and visited Japan numerous times even after moving to the US, I just counted 6 as the number of times I have made trips centered around Fujisan. This is on top of the fact that Fujisan can be seen on clear days from my condo in Yokohama.

By making the trips I have visited only 5 out of 25 components of this serial property: Miho no Matsubara, which I visited when I was a pre-teen, Fujisan Mountain Area, where I made the ascent to the top in 1984, Kawaguchi-Ko in 2011, Yamanaka-Ko and an Oshi Lodging House, which I visited on the day of the Fujiyoshida Fire Festival at Kitaguchi Hongu Fuji Sengen Jinja, only a few months after the inscription in 2013.

Is Kitaguchi Hongu Fuji Sengen Jinja (Jinja means Shinto shrine) in Fujiyohsida a part of this property? If you look at this page

http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1418/multiple=1&unique_number=1883

it is not listed, even though 7 other Sengen Shinto shrines are listed here. Nor is it indicated in our map above.

It is confusing, but as it turned out, Kitaguchi Hongu Fuji Sengen Jinja is included in the “Fujisan Mountain Area,” the core of the core zone, listed on top of the list on the page above. This means that if you visit this Shinto shrine, you visited the “Fujisan Mountain Area.”

Indeed, all in all 9 Sengen Shinto shrines are included in the property, not just 7, the last one being the Hitoana Sengen Jinja, which is included in the “Hitoana Fuji-ko Iseki” part of this property.

In addition, not only Yamanaka-Ko and Kawaguchi-Ko are included in the property, but also the three other Kos among the Fuji Go Ko (Fuji Five Lakes) are also included in the property; the other three are also part of the Fuji Mountain Area.

I think this confusion is reflected in the "Integrity" and "Authenticity," as described on the UNESCO site.

The second half of the Fujiyoshida Fire Festival takes place at the Kitaguchi Hongu Fuji Sengen Jinja. The Festival is known in Japan as one of "Japan's Three Strangest Festivals." The photo shows the red Fujisan “Mikoshi,” or portable shrine, is carried and circled around along with fire on the shrine ground at the climax of the 2-day festival.

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