RGS-IBG Archive

Herbert Ponting, 1907

Herbert Ponting is regarded as one of the leading travel photographers of the early 20th century, famously accompanying Robert Falcon Scott on his Terra Nova Expedition to the Ross Sea and South Pole, from 1910 to 1913. Prior to this, he spent three years travelling in Japan, working as a correspondent for Harper’s Weekly, covering the First Japanese Army in Manchuria during the Russo-Japanese War of 1904/05.

Many of the images Ponting shot during his time in Japan focused on the country’s landscapes. This view of Mount Fuji became the opening image of his book, Japanese Studies (published in 1906), where it is accompanied by a passage from Wordsworth: ‘A distant mountain’s head/strewn with snow smooth as the sky can shed/ Shines like another sun.’

Japan’s most well-known landmark, Mount Fuji is located on the country’s main island of Honshū, 100 kilometres southwest of Tokyo. It is an active stratovolcano that last erupted in 1707. The origin of the mountain’s name is uncertain. It first appears as Fuji no Yama in Hitachi no kuni fudoki (713CE), an early government record. An early theory by a British missionary suggests the source of the name is derived from an Ainu term meaning ‘fire’ (fuchi). Japanese linguists refute this and claim it is more likely to be from the Japanese word for ‘immortal’ (fushi).

Considered one of only three sacred mountains by the Shinto religion, Mount Fuji is surrounded by temples and shrines, even along the edge and the bottom of the crater. Climbing the mountain has long been a religious practice – the first recorded ascent being by an unknown monk in 663AD – and ascents would traditionally be made wearing the white robes of a pilgrim. This practice is still adhered to by present-day members of Fujiko sects – religious groups that accord the volcano a soul.

Today, Fuji-san (as many Japanese people call it) attracts 200,000 climbers per year from around the world and has four hiking trails of varying levels of difficulty. Most climbers come during the climbing season from July to August, typically setting out at night in order to reach the summit by dawn, where they can witness breathtaking sunrises.