Fujimizaka: Slope with View of Mt. Fuji
( Arakawa ward, Tokyo on Feb. 9 )
The photograph shows a view from Fujimizaka ( which means a slope where you can see Mt. Fuji ) in Arakawa ward, Tokyo. A 13-story condominium has been under construction about 1.5 kilometers off the slope since last fall and the completion of the building will almost hide the left side of the mountain ridges. Therefore residents around Fujimizaka are making a protest against it. There are 16 slopes named Fujimizaka in the central area of Tokyo but Fujimizaka in Arakawa ward is the only one where both sides of the mountain ridges can been seen. So it is a precious view but it wouldn't be a problem if it wasn't Mt. Fuji which should be out of sight.
Mt. Fuji( 3776 m) located 100 kilometers distant from the center of Tokyo is the highest, the most beautiful mountain ( because it has a beautiful outline and the surface of the mountain looks light violet ) and was once a religious object. Mt. Fuji also appears in Taketorimonogatari, the Tale of the Bamboo Cutter which is supposed to be a story made at the beginning of Heian period ( the end of the 8th century to the end of the 12th century ) The rough story is that a girl found in the bamboo by an old bamboo cutter grows into a beautiful woman and she is proposed by young aristocrats but refuses them by giving them difficult conditions, because she is a person in the moon and finally goes back there. At the end of the story, it says that the mountain came to be called " Fuji" after the medicine of " Fuji " ( which means immortality) the woman left behind was burnt in the high mountain by the emperor who missed her very much.
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