Fuji A Mountain in the Making

"A historical tour de force, this biography of Japan's most famous mountain begins in distant geological times, moves across centuries of change in religious, economic, military, ideological, and environmental factors, and ends its admirably transdisciplinary account at the edge of the future. Kaleidoscopic, informative, beguiling, its essay-like chapters are also a pleasure to read."
– Carol Gluck, author of Japan's Modern Myths: Ideology in the Late Meiji Period

"Can a mountain dance through time? Bernstein's marvelous book shows us that it can. He turns the age-old icon of Fuji into a vibrant participant in Japan's long history."
– Julia Adeney Thomas, coauthor of The Anthropocene: A Multidisciplinary Approach

"This lavishly illustrated, multifaceted survey of Mount Fuji blends together wide-ranging historical, art historical, religious, social, economic, geological, and ecological perspectives. It balances a history of how the mountain and its environment changed with the story of how people envisioned it, worshipped it, exploited it, and climbed it, from the earliest records to the present when it is now a world heritage site. Written with verve and some humor in a style accessible to students and general readers, it is a tour de force of serious scholarship."
– Anne Walthall, University of California, Irvine, and author of In the Presence of Gods and Spirits: Hirata Atsutane and His Collaborators

"Andrew Bernstein has written an unusually comprehensive history of Mount Fuji. His scholarly engagement is wide-ranging, treating the reader to a remarkable array of approaches – from earth science and economics to poetry, art, and religion. The fruit of many years' research, Fuji offers penetrating perspectives on a sacred volcano's convulsive life."
– Kären Wigen, author of A Malleable Map: Geographies of Restoration in Central Japan, 1600–1912