Popularizing the Faith
Shugen ascetics were climbing Mt. Fuji as early as the eleventh century, but it was in the late fifteenth century that the mountain became the focus of a more popular faith. A local chronicle called the Katsuyamaki describes “countless” lay pilgrims during the climbing season of 1500. This was certainly not a normal season, as it was an auspicious year for climbing the mountain—one that only comes once every 60 years in the traditional sexagenary cycle, corresponding to the year in which Mt. Fuji “emerged from the mist” in one legendary account of the mountain’s origins. Still, the large number of pilgrims that year seems to imply that spiritual practices centered on Mt. Fuji had spread to the lay community.
In the eighteenth century, an increasing number of confraternities dedicated to Mt. Fuji, known as Fuji-ko, emerged and systematically expanded in the metropolis of Edo (modern-day Tokyo). Claiming spiritual descent from the legendary ascetic and spiritual leader Hasegawa Kakugyo (1541?–1646), the Fuji-ko faith spread rapidly, particularly after Jikigyo Miroku (1671–1733) became the sixth leader in 1717. He adopted the name of Miroku from the bodhisattva that Buddhists believe will renew the world in the future, while preaching that a new and better age was at hand. He also emphasized a more rational, universalist approach to the faith, including—remarkably, for the time—a belief that women were just as entitled to seek salvation in Mt. Fuji as men. The people of Edo approved of these religious and moral doctrines, and Miroku’s teachings spread widely among the city’s populace.
