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Paper short abstract

Focusing on Taketori monogatari, this paper examines Mount Fuji as a liminal literary space where sacred cosmology, imperial authority, and human mortality intersect, shaping its symbolic role in premodern texts.

Paper long abstract

Mountains have occupied a central place in Japanese literary imagination since the earliest extant texts, most notably Kojiki and the poetry anthology Man’yōshū, where they appear as sacred spaces mediating between the human and the divine. Within early literature, mountains are frequently associated with ritual, authority, and cosmological order, as exemplified by imperial practices such as kunimi, the symbolic surveying of the land. These early representations establish mountains as topos of transcendence, fear, and reverence, forming a foundation for later literary developments.

This paper examines the literary construction of Mount Fuji across premodern Japanese texts, with particular focus on Taketori monogatari (The Tale of Bamboo Cutter). In this work, Mount Fuji functions not merely as a geographical landmark but as a liminal space that connects the earthly realm with the celestial world. The episode of the burning elixir of immortality situates Mount Fuji at the intersection of imperial power, unattainable desire, and the boundary between mortality and immortality. Fuji thus becomes a site where political authority and cosmic order are symbolically questioned, as the emperor’s inability to transcend human limitations is inscribed into the landscape itself.

By situating Taketori monogatari alongside other premodern literary representations, this paper traces a gradual shift in the literary perception of Mount Fuji—from a predominantly sacral and mythological presence toward a more secular, narrative, and aestheticized motif. The analysis highlights how changes in genre, narrative perspective, and literary convention contributed to the evolving symbolic functions of Mount Fuji within Japanese literature.