Lake Yamanakako
Lake Yamanakako is the highest and largest of the Fuji Five Lakes and a popular location for vacationers today. Major roads both north and south of the lake connected the northern foot of Mt. Fuji to parts east, including the provinces of Suruga and Sagami (modern-day Shizuoka and Kanagawa prefectures). Both roads were used by pilgrims on their way to climb the Yoshida Ascending Route up the mountain’s north face. The customary location for suigyo, the purification ritual of immersion, was on the lake’s southwestern shore.
Before one small temple in a village on the southwestern shore of Lake Yamanakako, there is a stone monument with an inscription reading “An offering of carp was made.” The monument was erected in the early nineteenth century by a Fuji-ko group called Marusho-ko.