"808 confraternities in Edo,
80,000 members."

Kakugyo (also called Fujiwara no Kakugyo), an ascetic active from the late Sengoku period into the early Edo period, is considered the founder of Fuji-ko. According to legend, after traveling the country in ascetic practice, Kakugyo arrived at "Hitoana," a lava cave at the foot of Mount Fuji, and made it his base for severe training — including standing on tiptoe atop a sheet of ice for days on end, a practice known as "toe-standing austerity," among other feats said to defy ordinary human endurance.

Kakugyo systematized his own incantations, prayer methods, and the practice of "nichihai" (worshipping the sunrise each morning), teaching devotion to Mount Fuji as the sacred dwelling place of "Sengen Daibosatsu." This teaching spread to Edo commoners through his disciples, and is considered the direct source of the later Fuji-ko boom.

The man who spread Fuji-ko explosively among the commoners of Edo was Jikigyo Miroku, said to be a disciple several generations removed from Kakugyo. Believed to have been born in Ise, Miroku made his living selling oil while deepening his understanding of the Fuji-ko teachings, and is said to have preached a surprisingly progressive doctrine for its time — that Mount Fuji itself was a mountain of the gods and buddhas meant to bring equality to the world.

In 1733, at age 63, Miroku climbed Mount Fuji and began fasting at a rock formation near the 7th station called "Eboshi-iwa," where he is said to have entered "nyujo" — dying through fasting. This dramatic final act shocked his followers deeply, and Miroku was deified as the reviver of Fuji-ko, after which the faith saw explosive growth throughout Edo.

After Miroku's death, Fuji-ko spread rapidly among Edo's townspeople as mutual-aid faith organizations known as "ko." It's said to have reached a scale described as "808 confraternities in Edo, 80,000 members," and a mutual-support system developed where members of the same confraternity would pool funds and take turns sending a representative to climb Mount Fuji on everyone's behalf, a practice called "daisan" (proxy pilgrimage).

For those unable to climb Fuji itself, numerous miniature artificial mountains modeled on Fuji, called "Fujizuka," were built throughout Edo and elsewhere. Many were even built using real lava carried in from Mount Fuji to cover the surface, and climbing one was believed to confer the same blessing as climbing the real mountain. A number of Edo-era Fujizuka still survive today within Tokyo, some designated as Important Tangible Folk Cultural Properties.

Fuji-ko pilgrims were received at the mountain's foot by figures called "oshi" — priests who offered their own homes as lodging houses, took care of pilgrims' food and rest, and also handled prayer rites and mountain guiding, serving as a bridge between the sacred and the everyday. In the Kamiyoshida district of Fujiyoshida City, Yamanashi, a townscape retaining traces of these historic oshi residences still survives in part, and is itself registered as a World Heritage component asset.

The history nurtured by Fuji-ko played a decisive role in Mount Fuji's World Heritage registration. The next page looks behind the scenes.