New Books Network Andrew W. Bernstein, "Fuji: A Mountain in the Making" (Princeton UP, 2025)
Dec 26, 2025
In this engaging discussion, Andrew W. Bernstein, a historian and author, delves into the complex narrative of Mount Fuji. He reveals its tumultuous history, marked by eruptions and transformed cultural symbolism. Bernstein explores Fuji's agency, portraying it as a living entity that shapes human experiences. He discusses its significance in literature, art, and religion while highlighting the tensions of state responses to natural disasters. The conversation also touches on the mountain's commercialization and its modern identity in the Anthropocene, blending nature with human impact.
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Fuji As An Active Historical Actor
- Mount Fuji functions as an active historical actor through eruptions and water cycles that shaped human practices.
- Andrew Bernstein argues Fuji grew up with humans, shaping agriculture, ritual, and settlement patterns.
Early Literary Images Of Fuji
- Early texts portray Fuji as cold, forbidding, and capricious, comparing it unfavorably to other mountains.
- Medieval divinations linked Fuji's eruptions to epidemics and human passions in Manyoshu poetry.
Hōei Eruption Revealed Political Faultlines
- The 1707 Hōei eruption exposed Tokugawa Japan's political and infrastructural fragilities across domains.
- Bernstein shows petitions and shogunate relief reveal tensions in the compound state and expectations of benevolent rule.