S P O T ／ SPOT-098

Hitoana Fujikō Ruins

人穴富士講遺跡ひとあなふじこういせき

On the western slopes of Mount Fuji, a lava cave called Hitoana ('the Human Hole') has been understood since at least the 13th century as a literal entrance to the realm of the kami of Fuji — the great Sengen Daibosatsu — and as a portal between the world of the living and the world of the dead. In the early 17th century, the cave became the meditation retreat of Hasegawa Kakugyō, the founder of the Fujikō pilgrim associations, who is said to have spent extended periods inside in austere training. From the 18th century onward, as the Fujikō movement spread among Edo townsfolk, ordinary pilgrims began leaving inscribed stone stelae outside the cave entrance to mark their visits, their prayers, and their dead. More than two hundred such stelae remain today, dating from across two centuries of working-class religious practice, set in a small ravine around the cave mouth. The site is administered by Fujinomiya City; access to the cave interior is by reservation through the local museum, and the surface stelae can be visited freely outside winter.