Introduction
James W. Davidson was an explorer, writer, diplomat, trader and philanthropist from the United States. From 1894 to 1902, he travelled in Formosa and Japan as a journalist, businessman and diplomat. He collected many glass lantern slides for his lecture, in order to show the history, culture and geography of Japan to the West.
One of the slides titled "Mountaintop View of Mount Fujiyama" is a photograph of a mountaintop view of Mount Fuji taken in 1895, during the Meiji Period.
Past and Present
Mount Fuji has been praised for the beauty of its mountain from the ancient times. It is worshiped by people with awe and a worship as a horrible mountain where the god of rough fire is raging, on the summit there, which has been the subject
…show more content…
It is also for military use and technological research. In September 2004, the weather station aiming at monitoring radar sweeps detecting typhoons and heavy rains at the summit was closed after a 72-year operation. Now It has been replaced by a fully automated system.
Literature, Arts, and Beliefs Regarding Mount Fuji
In different historical periods, Mount Fuji has different symbolic meanings. In the paintings, the Japanese painters gave it a different image; in the literary works, Japanese writers used it to express complex feelings; in the textbooks, the Japanese government regards it as a symbol of unifying the spirit of Japan.including the
Located in the center of the Japanese archipelago, Mount Fuji is tall and majestic than any other mountains and even shows a solemn beauty. Such a mountain naturally won the admiration and reverence of the Japanese from ancient times. Man'yōshū, the oldest existing collection of Japanese poetry, compiled sometime after AD 759, includes the famous chōka (long poem) by Yamabe no Akahito beginning, "Since heaven and earth parted, divine and lofty in Suruga soars the high peak of Fuji . . ." -and thereafter appears frequently in Japanese prose and