“Mt. Fuji is the highest mountain in Japan proper, and its graceful form and prominent position near the Pacific Ocean have rendered it an object of admiration amounting almost to worship.

“There are five approaches to the mountain, from Gotemba and Subashiri (east), Yoshida (north), Ōmiya (west), and Suyama (south). Coolie-guides, called gōriki, may be engaged at any of these places. Chairs and horses are available for some distance from all points.

“The ascent takes some ten hours from Gotemba, and there is a shrine on the summit, passed on making the circuit of the crater. The sunrise witnessed from the summit is a glorious sight, and one which no one should miss. The rest-huts are open during the climbing season from the latter part of July to the first part of September.

“A trip may be made around the foot of Mt. Fuji via the many volcanic lakes on the northern side, Yamanaka, Kawaguchi, Nishi, Shōji, and Motosu, over a distance of 65 miles from Gotemba to Suzukawa. This is the prettiest trip in the neighbourhood, and the horse-car line, boats, and livery horses reduce the distance to be walked to 24 miles.”

– Traveler’s Handy Guide, published by Imperial Government Railways, 1915

“The way to upmt [sic] Fuji from Gotenba”, Sixth Station, Climbing Mt. Fuji, Gotemba, c. 1920. (Colorized)

See also:
“Fuji from Gotemba”, c. 1910.
Mt. Fuji and Lake Hakone Railway Access and Bus Routes, c. 1930.

“The first faint tinting of the sky was hailed, and we all hurried out to see the sunrise.

“The sky was flushing; streaks and clouds — red, yellow, pink; it was not easy to distinguish the sea-line from the mists; but at last the splendid orb appeared, coming up majestically; it was dazzlingly magnificent; never before had I thought of it in terms of diamonds — but nothing else describes it. Mists and clouds faded away and dissolved until the view of sea and land was perfect. Hundreds of square miles — country fields, hills and mountains, villages, the sea — everything was as sharp and detailed as in a map or diagram.

Map: Mt. Fuji summit, c. 1915, showing hiking paths around its volcanic rim.

“It was hard to tear oneself away, but the crowd of worshippers was breaking up, and we went back to our resting place too deeply impressed for words. Sogabe said that in his seventy ascents he had never seen a more perfect sunrise.

“Two pilgrims were near us, one who had made the ascent twenty-one times, the other eighteen. The latter said: ‘Nor have I ever seen such a sunrise in my eighteen climbings of the mountain —- and here this foreigner sees it in his first ascent.’

“He rather grudged that we had got so cheaply what had cost him so much. Sogabe said: ‘You have been triply fortunate — for you have seen the rainbow on the clouds, the rising of the full moon, and a perfect sunrise any one had been enough.”

– Fujiyama, the Sacred Mountain of Japan, by Frederick Starr, 1924

First Station, Gotemba Route, Climbing Mt. Fuji, c. 1920.