Discover Japan's Legacy of Mountain Worship on a Private Guided Tour of the Ancient Mt. Fuji Pilgrimage Route

Visit the Mt. Fuji World Heritage Center for an Introduction to the Great Mountain

After meeting your guide for the day at Shin-Fuji Station, you will take a short trip by car to the Mt. Fuji World Heritage Center. Opened in 2017, this state-of-the-art facility contains a broad range of exhibits to introduce you to various aspects of Mt. Fuji. Certain displays focus on the mountain’s origins and ongoing impact on its local environment, while others explore its influence on Japanese culture through art, literature, and deeply-held spiritual beliefs.

The Center is also a fascinating work of art in and of itself. Designed by award-winning architect Shigeru Ban, its upside-down cone formed of wooden lattices offers an intriguing inversion of the famous peak. A spiral ramp offers visitors the chance to make a gradual ascent as they explore the building’s exhibits, mimicking the experience of climbing Mt. Fuji. Superb views of the great mountain await you in the observation hall (on clear days).

Discover the 500-Year Old Fuji Mandala at the Region’s Oldest Shrine

You will next move to the nearby Fujisan Hongu Sengen Taisha Shrine. Said to have existed for over 2,000 years, the shrine was once tasked with facilitating prayers to appease the kami spirits thought responsible for the mountain’s volcanic activity. As Mt. Fuji’s rumblings calmed in subsequent centuries, and it gained its place as the traditional starting point for ascents of Mt. Fuji’s south face.

As you will learn as you tour the grounds, however, this shrine was much more than just a waypoint on the climb. Pilgrims who climbed the mountain in centuries past believed that they were seeking enlightenment and spiritual power through sustained hardship, stopping repeatedly at sites to pray as they climbed, a ritual known as tohai. Inside the shrine, you can view a replica of the 500-year old Fuji Mandala, a silk painting created to offer not only physical but spiritual guidance to devotees visiting Mt. Fuji.

Experience an Encounter with the Yamabushi Monks of Murayama Sengen Shrine

While viewing the Fuji Mandala, your guide will point out several of the locations depicted in the painting, including Murayama Sengen Shrine, the next stop on the traditional route up the mountain. When you arrive, you will have the opportunity for an encounter with the yamabushi, monks who continue the shrine’s ancient legacy of ascetic mountain worship, which has long sought spiritual purification and power from Mt. Fuji.

During your tour, the yamabushi will lead you to the Dainichido Hall of Kōhō-ji, a Buddhist temple on the shrine’s grounds. Throughout Japanese history, shrines and temples have often co-existed alongside one another, their rituals and traditions blended. Inside the Dainichido Hall, you will participate in a formal ceremony known as kaji kito, where the monk will bestow blessings intended to protect you from illness, injury, and misfortune.

You can also spend time speaking with the yamabushi to gain personal insight into the shrine’s history and its relationship with Mt. Fuji. There is a monument on site that pays tribute to Sir Rutherford Alcock, the first British Minister to Japan who also became the first foreign national to climb the mountain when he summited in 1860, starting out from Fujinomiya.

Follow the Ancient Mountain Path with a Walk along the Murayama Trail　

After a bracing bento lunch featuring local Shizuoka ingredients, you will be met by a nature guide who will lead you on a stroll along the ancient Murayama Trail. This is the oldest known route up Mt. Fuji, used for centuries by monks pursuing spiritual enlightenment, followed by modern explorers such as Sir Rutherford Alcock seeking discovery and adventure. 

Along the trail, your guide will point out some interesting historic sites such as Umagaeshi, where visitors arriving on horseback once dismounted before continuing their climb, and the ruins of Nyonin-dō, a site of worship for women before they were permitted to ascend the mountain. This area of the subalpine is also home to a rich range of animal and plant species, as well as unique geological features shaped over time.

Learn to View Mt. Fuji from a Whole New Perspective

Once worshipped with fear and awe for the incomprehensible power of its seismic forces, Japan’s greatest mountain became revered over time as a place of physical and spiritual exploration. The Mt. Fuji World Heritage Center at the start of your tour provides a foundational understanding of this physical-spiritual link. Ensuing visits to Fujisan Hongu Sengen Taisha Shrine and Murayama Sengen Shrine allow you to encounter, up close, the legacy of the long and enduring traditions associated with the mountain.

Finally, with your guided walk along the Murayama Trail, you will directly experience part of the same climbing route that so many pilgrims and explorers followed in the past. While it can be tempting to view our modern world as separate and distinct from those distant times, these differences tend to fade away with the crunch of gravel under your shoes, the crispness of the fresh air, and the majestic sight of Mt. Fuji rising up above you.