Condé Nast Traveller Features Kammui's The Sacred Ascent of Mount Fuji Adventure in Its September/October 2026 Issue

Kammui has partnered with the Mount Fuji Trail Club to open the historic Fujiko pilgrimage route to international travelers.

2026.08.31

The climb starts in Kamiyoshida, a town at the foot of Mount Fuji, at the bronze torii that marks the line between the everyday world and the sacred one. For most of the Edo period, pilgrims arrived here first. They lodged with an oshi, a household that provided prayer, instruction, food, and a bed. They rested, ate, and were prepared. Only then did they walk up.

A route, not a summit

Most visitors to Mount Fuji now arrive by bus at the Fifth Station and climb to the top inside a season that lasts barely two months. Almost all of the mountain's annual traffic passes through that window. Very few of those climbers, both Japanese and non-Japanese alike, know that the path under their feet is a pilgrimage route, or why anyone first walked it.

The Fifth Station sits roughly at the treeline. Everything below it is forest, and it is the half of the mountain that the road removed from the journey. The old approach ran up through those trees from the town at the base, past the shrine that served as a starting point and the remains of stone markers, tea houses, and rest stations that served pilgrims on their way. Pilgrims climbed from there to the summit and back down, and the forest was the beginning and end.

This Fujiko adventure restores the lower half generations of visitors have missed out on. It begins in town and climbs on foot to the Fifth Station, running outside the official climbing season as well as during it, which makes it available across most of the year. Crockett walked it herself in late April, when the mountain above that point was still covered in snow. A summit ascent can be added during the climbing season for those who want the full historical arc.

"Mount Fuji is one of the world’s most iconic mountains, but its popularity has also created significant overtourism challenges," said Max Mackee, Founder of Kammui. "we wanted to create a journey that is more closely aligned with the mountain’s culture, which reconnects travellers with the communities and traditions that have shaped its meaning for centuries."

The aim is twofold. Drawing guests onto the lower mountain and outside the summer window takes weight off a summit that absorbs nearly all of its visitors in eight weeks. It also returns the part of the journey that most people never see. For Fujiko societies and their adherents, meaning ran through the entire sequence, from the arrival in town and the preparation in an oshi lodge to the days of walking and the summit itself. The modern climb keeps the last stage and skips the preparation that gave it its value.

At the height of the tradition, there were roughly a thousand Fujiko societies in Edo and some nine thousand across the Kantō region. Members paid into their society over years, and the money sent a handful of them up the mountain on behalf of the group. The practices that governed the ascent, including the chant carried at each station, came down through those societies and are still spoken on the route today.

Working with the Mount Fuji Trail Club

Of the oshi households that once lined the approach in the dozens, only a handful remain active. The journey was built with them and the Mount Fuji Trail Club.

The Mount Fuji Trail Club was formed in 2016, but its guides were working on Mount Fuji long before that. Members hold certification from the Japan Mountain Guides Association, serve as officers of the Fujiyoshida-authorized Fuji Mountain Guides Union, and work as accredited nature interpreters at the Fifth Station. One has been guiding on the mountain for more than thirty-five years, following an earlier generation of guides before him; Representative Director Yasuhiko Ota has reached the summit more than seven hundred times. Leveraging their extensive collective experience, members took part in this initiative to help preserve Fujiko traditions, which were a vital element in the mountain's 2013 inscription on the UNESCO World Heritage List as "Fujisan, sacred place and source of artistic inspiration." An oshi lodging house in Fujiyoshida is among the twenty-five component sites of that inscription.

Why Kammui took this on

Kammui's model rests on a straightforward premise: a destination should be in better condition after a visit than before it, and travel is one of the resources a community can put toward that.

In Fujiyoshida the work to maintain the local heritage was already well underway. The oshi households have kept their houses and their practices through generations. The Mount Fuji Trail Club has worked on conservation and safety on the mountain since 2016, and its guides have taken part in Yamanashi Prefecture's project to revive the Fujiko tradition. Others in the town are researching and documenting the route, and in some cases bringing back practices that had fallen out of regular use.

Kammui's role was to help shape the experience into a journey for international travelers. Mount Fuji is inscribed by UNESCO as a sacred place and a source of artistic inspiration, and the journey was built to hold both. Guests walk the Fujiko route, then view the peak from Gora Kadan Fuji, framed as the poets and printmakers saw it. Most climbers descend and leave. The chance to rest and reflect on what they just accomplished is one that few take.

Well-designed travel creates economic opportunity for guides, households, and producers in the region, and it can be structured to spread visitors across a wider part of the year and the region. The aim is a form of tourism that supports cultural heritage and the local economy without overwhelming the places it depends on.

Booking The Sacred Ascent of Mount Fuji Adventure

The Sacred Ascent of Mount Fuji is a three-night, four-day journey starting in Fujiyoshida, Yamanashi Prefecture. It includes a night at a traditional oshi lodge, expert heritage and mountain guiding, private transfers, and access to sacred Fujiko sites not otherwise open to the public. A summit extension is available during the official climbing season. All bookings and enquiries are handled directly by the Kammui team.

About Kammui

Kammui is a Tokyo-based travel company built around regenerative tourism. It leads people to destinations across Japan that will inspire them, sending them home better in body, mind, and spirit. Every journey is built with local guides and operators, providing access that would be impossible otherwise. Kammui has partnered with brands including Range Rover, blackcrows, and ANA Business Jet, and has worked with Japan's Ministry of the Environment to develop premium experiences in the country's national parks.

About Mount Fuji Trail Club

Mount Fuji Trail Club is a general incorporated association of Mount Fuji climbing guides, working in guiding, environmental conservation, and mountain safety led by Representative Director Yasuhiko Ota. It was founded in August 2016 as the Yoshida Trail Club, centered on the Yoshida-guchi ascent route, and took its present name as its work expanded across the mountain. The organization works alongside guides, the families who have long operated the mountain huts, prefectural and municipal government, and other bodies.

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