Mount Fuji and Kamakura aim for Unesco recognition

October 23, 2011

A man pulls swan-shaped boats on Lake Ashinoko in front of Japan's highest peak, Mount Fuji. AFP pic

TOKYO, Oct 23 One of the most instantly recognisable symbols of Japan and its ancient capital are to be put forward to the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization to be registered as World Cultural Heritage sites.

An official letter will be submitted to Unesco on February 1, 2012, with the committee that makes decisions on additions to the list to visit the two locations next summer.

A final decision on whether they will be included will be made in the summer of 2013.

Japan has previously considered putting Mount Fuji forward for Unesco recognition, but a government panel rejected the bid because large amounts of waste had accumulated on the mountain.

The panel added that as a volcano, it lacked a unique element that would make it appeal to Unesco.

Great strides have been made in recent years to clean the mountain, with the support of local authorities, the Japanese media and non-profit organisations, such as the Fujisan Club.

People who climb the mountain in the summer months, for example, are being encouraged to take their waste home with them, and new chemical lavatories are being installed at the mountain huts on the hiking trails to the peak of the volcano.

In its recommendation, the government will emphasise that Mount Fuji is comprised of 25 individual assets, including the mountainous area, comprising its summit and climbing trails, the Shiraito-no-taki waterfall, shrines on the mountain, lakes at its foot and the Miho-no-Matsubara pine grove.

It also says there are two key reasons why Mount Fuji should be appreciated as a World Heritage Site.

The first, it says, is that Japanese people from across all social strata have worshipped the peak as a holy mountain.

The fir st shrine built on the mountain dates back to the early years of the Heian Period, between 794 and 1185.

Even today, many of the people who climb the peak do so as a form of worship, while the mountain's near-perfect symmetry has been an inspiration for artists and writers for centuries.

The city of Kamakura, southwest of Tokyo, served as the capital of feudal Japan from 1180 until the end of the Kamakura Period, in 1333.

The city is small and old-fashioned by Japanese standards and still has many old temples and shrines.

Japan wants to differentiate the campaign to have the city recognized as a World Heritage Site from those that were successful in having other former capitals join the list, including Kyoto and Nara, by describing it as Kamakura, Home of the Samurai. Reuters