Japan is home to Mount Fuji, the volcano depicted in many Japanese artworks.
Mount Fuji is Japan’s highest mountain, rising to 3,776.24 meters on Honshu, the country’s largest island. It is a stratovolcano formed above a subduction zone where the Philippine Sea Plate moves beneath neighboring tectonic plates. The mountain’s symmetrical cone is especially visible from Tokyo and surrounding areas on clear days.
Fuji last erupted from December 1707 to February 1708, in an event known as the Hōei eruption. The eruption produced ash that reached Edo, the city now called Tokyo. Although Fuji is currently dormant, it remains an active volcano in geological terms.
The mountain has long been important in Japanese religion, literature, and visual culture. Katsushika Hokusai’s ukiyo-e series Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji includes the famous print The Great Wave off Kanagawa. UNESCO recognized the mountain and related cultural sites as a World Heritage cultural property in 2013.