Japan is home to Mount Fuji, the country’s highest mountain and a sacred cultural symbol.
Mount Fuji is a nearly symmetrical stratovolcano on Honshu, Japan’s largest island. It rises to 3,776 metres and stands near the boundary of Yamanashi and Shizuoka prefectures, west of Tokyo. Its isolated cone and snow-capped profile have made it one of Japan’s most recognisable landscapes.
The mountain has long been connected with Shinto and Buddhist traditions. Pilgrims climbed it before modern tourism developed, and prints by artists such as Katsushika Hokusai helped spread its image internationally. Hokusai’s series Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji includes the famous Great Wave off Kanagawa, which shows Fuji in the distance.
Fuji is an active volcano, although it has not erupted since 1707–1708. Its last eruption, called the Hōei eruption, produced ash that reached Edo, the city now known as Tokyo. UNESCO listed the mountain and related cultural sites as World Heritage in 2013.