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00:07:15,876 --> 00:07:19,667
In Japanese the word for void is 'utsuro'.
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00:07:20,918 --> 00:07:25,209
But if you change the last syllable to 'wa',
the word becomes 'utsuwa', meaning bowl.
3
00:07:25,876 --> 00:07:30,042
A bowl can receive and hold
some very important things.
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00:07:31,209 --> 00:07:33,542
A bowl for rice.
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00:07:33,667 --> 00:07:35,876
A bowl for tea.
6
00:07:43,792 --> 00:07:45,876
If a 'roi' is added to the end...
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00:07:46,000 --> 00:07:49,083
...the word then becomes 'utsuroi'
- transience...
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00:07:49,209 --> 00:07:53,042
...a word representing a concept of time
rather than of space.
9
00:07:55,918 --> 00:07:59,500
But to get back to the story:
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00:13:38,292 --> 00:13:42,751
You wonder perhaps
what I am hoping to achieve...
11
00:13:43,459 --> 00:13:46,167
...and why I have come here.
12
00:13:48,626 --> 00:13:51,209
As you well know...
13
00:13:51,334 --> 00:13:53,459
...I am not a sporting man...
14
00:13:55,250 --> 00:13:59,417
...but I am glad to escape
the humidity and heat of Tokyo.
15
00:14:01,292 --> 00:14:04,375
Sometimes a journey
makes itself necessary.
16
00:14:07,876 --> 00:14:10,751
I have packed only the minimum.
17
00:14:10,876 --> 00:14:13,250
My backpack is light.
18
00:14:13,959 --> 00:14:16,876
I am impatient to get going.
19
00:14:17,709 --> 00:14:22,167
All around me there is an infectious
atmosphere of nervous excitement.
20
00:14:49,751 --> 00:14:52,667
Seen from close up, Mount Fuji...
21
00:14:52,792 --> 00:14:57,918
...is nothing more than one huge heap
of volcanic ash and solidified lava.
22
00:14:58,834 --> 00:15:02,209
It isn't nearly as attractive close up
as from a distance.
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00:15:03,292 --> 00:15:08,083
Involuntarily I think of
the goddess of all volcanoes...
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00:15:09,626 --> 00:15:11,918
...Kono-hana...
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00:15:13,209 --> 00:15:16,417
...who is said to dwell on Mount Fuji.
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00:16:52,626 --> 00:16:57,167
On October 28, 1707...
27
00:16:57,584 --> 00:17:02,626
...the islands of Kyushu, Shikoku
and Honshu were hit.
28
00:17:08,459 --> 00:17:11,918
The massive earthquake
resulted also in a tsunami...
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00:17:12,042 --> 00:17:17,375
...causing many deaths and
widespread damage and destruction.
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00:17:29,083 --> 00:17:35,292
Mount Fuji, white with snow,
erupted a few weeks later.
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00:17:38,334 --> 00:17:41,375
The volcanic activity lasted sixteen days.
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00:17:42,500 --> 00:17:45,959
Cinders and ash fell like rain.
33
00:17:47,792 --> 00:17:51,792
Fuji's once perfectly symmetrical cone...
34
00:17:51,918 --> 00:17:54,626
...gained a new hollow
on its southeastern slope:
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00:17:55,417 --> 00:17:57,667
The Hoei Crater.
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00:18:00,667 --> 00:18:05,125
The volcano hasn't erupted again since.
37
00:20:42,751 --> 00:20:47,876
Blindly, we trail ever so slowly upward.
38
00:20:50,167 --> 00:20:52,417
Snails would move faster.
39
00:20:55,459 --> 00:20:58,042
Now the air is getting cooler and thinner.
40
00:20:58,167 --> 00:21:00,375
I breathe faster.
41
00:21:01,125 --> 00:21:07,334
I can feel the veins at my temples throbbing.
42
00:21:08,918 --> 00:21:11,375
The sun is getting low.
43
00:21:14,250 --> 00:21:17,334
My fellow hikers occasionally call out
encouragement to each other:
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00:21:18,167 --> 00:21:21,876
'Do your best!' 'Not far now!'
45
00:22:13,125 --> 00:22:15,876
You're the writer and translator...
46
00:22:16,000 --> 00:22:18,250
...the keeper of books.
47
00:22:19,417 --> 00:22:22,334
I can only take pictures.
48
00:22:23,626 --> 00:22:26,500
Language never felt much of an ally to me.
49
00:22:28,000 --> 00:22:33,125
Even now I struggle for words to hold on to.
50
00:22:36,042 --> 00:22:40,042
It starts to rain. Umbrellas unfold.
51
00:22:42,292 --> 00:22:44,876
Reminding me of Hokusai woodcuts.
52
00:31:06,083 --> 00:31:11,292
Behold, the sacred, the magic mountain!
53
00:31:13,083 --> 00:31:16,542
The spiritual connection
between heaven and earth.
54
00:31:17,167 --> 00:31:19,250
The most ideal mountain:
55
00:31:19,375 --> 00:31:24,709
Symmetrical, solitary, snow-capped...
56
00:31:25,876 --> 00:31:29,042
...and thus beyond the reach of time.
57
00:31:30,542 --> 00:31:36,876
Tradition has it that Fuji
is best viewed from afar.
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00:32:21,751 --> 00:32:25,626
I walk, I am only walk.
59
00:32:26,292 --> 00:32:31,125
One tired foot after the other.
60
00:32:32,792 --> 00:32:36,375
It is all I can do to keep both feet
on the ground.
61
00:32:38,042 --> 00:32:41,459
Footing slips on the loose gravel slopes.
62
00:32:41,584 --> 00:32:45,667
Two steps forward, one step back.
63
00:32:49,459 --> 00:32:52,125
On the red lava gravel it feels as if...
64
00:32:52,918 --> 00:32:56,292
...I am transgressing the surface of Mars.
65
00:33:09,959 --> 00:33:14,000
Of course, we are not the first to climb.
66
00:33:15,334 --> 00:33:19,542
The first hikers,
over a thousand years ago...
67
00:33:19,667 --> 00:33:24,959
...followed a long Asian tradition of
hermits and mountain monks.
68
00:33:26,125 --> 00:33:31,125
See the 'Fujiko' pilgrims in their
white clothes and wide straw hats.
69
00:33:45,250 --> 00:33:50,542
From the famous womb cave
situated at Mount Fuji's base...
70
00:33:50,667 --> 00:33:53,834
...comes sacred, blood-red rock.
71
00:33:56,167 --> 00:34:01,959
Rain drops which have seeped through
the porous volcanic rock...
72
00:34:02,667 --> 00:34:06,459
...are collected as breast milk.
73
00:34:39,959 --> 00:34:42,834
In 1733...
74
00:34:42,959 --> 00:34:47,125
...one Fujiko leader climbed Fuji
and gained...
75
00:34:48,459 --> 00:34:53,167
...a saint's reputation
by fasting himself to death.
76
00:34:54,334 --> 00:34:58,709
Acting upon a vision he received from
the goddess Kono-hana...
77
00:34:58,834 --> 00:35:01,500
...he believed that the sacrifice of his body...
78
00:35:01,626 --> 00:35:06,751
...would signal the beginning of
a new and better age for mankind.
79
00:35:07,834 --> 00:35:10,667
After fasting for 33 days...
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00:35:11,542 --> 00:35:18,542
...he died, as he himself had predicted,
enclosed in a small portable shrine.
81
00:39:04,751 --> 00:39:08,209
Photography came early to Japan.
82
00:39:09,083 --> 00:39:14,125
Japan was forced to open up
to foreign Western trade...
83
00:39:14,709 --> 00:39:20,667
...after the last of the Unequal Treaties
was signed in 1869.
84
00:39:21,918 --> 00:39:23,417
In Yokohama...
85
00:39:23,542 --> 00:39:27,876
...foreign photographers opened
Japan's first photo studios.
86
00:39:29,083 --> 00:39:32,918
Westerners residing in the city
at that time...
87
00:39:33,042 --> 00:39:35,334
...gladly bought...
88
00:39:36,417 --> 00:39:41,083
...hand-coloured landscape
photographs and studio portraits.
89
00:39:42,876 --> 00:39:47,918
Japan's first native photographers
soon opened their own studios...
90
00:39:49,125 --> 00:39:53,626
...after training with Felice Beato
and the likes.
91
00:44:30,334 --> 00:44:34,209
After four mind-numbing hours
I have reached the 8th station.
92
00:44:35,500 --> 00:44:38,334
There were regular traffic jams
all the way up.
93
00:44:42,792 --> 00:44:49,542
Sadly the supreme mountain has
become a victim of its own success.
94
00:44:57,918 --> 00:45:01,375
At least now I can stop,
eat noodle soup and rest.
95
00:45:05,459 --> 00:45:07,542
There are the stone huts for sleeping...
96
00:45:08,751 --> 00:45:11,918
...souvenir shops and places
selling food and drink...
97
00:45:12,459 --> 00:45:15,125
...even vendors selling beer and sake.
98
00:45:41,250 --> 00:45:44,250
At nightfall the temperature drops further...
99
00:45:44,375 --> 00:45:47,209
...and a bitter cold settles.
100
00:45:55,334 --> 00:45:57,334
My plan is to sleep for a few hours...
101
00:45:57,667 --> 00:46:01,751
...and to resume the hike
shortly after midnight.
102
00:46:04,542 --> 00:46:10,667
In the dormitory rows of sleeping bags
lie ready...
103
00:46:13,918 --> 00:46:16,500
...but I do not want to go inside just yet.
104
00:46:19,584 --> 00:46:22,542
Up here the view of the clear night sky...
105
00:46:23,876 --> 00:46:26,459
...is magical, mesmerizing.
106
00:46:28,751 --> 00:46:31,667
So many stars.
107
00:46:31,792 --> 00:46:35,334
Never have I seen so many stars so bright.
108
00:46:37,500 --> 00:46:40,500
It is as if I could reach out my hand
and touch them!
109
00:46:42,292 --> 00:46:45,167
How I wish you were here with me.
110
00:53:49,417 --> 00:53:52,500
You saw nothing in Hiroshima.
Nothing.
111
00:53:52,626 --> 00:53:54,417
I saw everything. Everything.
112
00:53:54,542 --> 00:53:58,250
The hospital for instance. I saw it.
I'm sure I did.
113
00:53:59,292 --> 00:54:02,375
There is a hospital in Hiroshima.
114
00:54:03,834 --> 00:54:08,459
How could I help seeing it?
115
00:54:47,542 --> 00:54:52,500
On behalf of the Allied Forces,
the US occupied Japan for seven years.
116
00:54:53,876 --> 00:54:56,959
The population was impoverished.
117
00:54:57,083 --> 00:54:59,667
Tokyo lay in ruins.
118
00:55:00,542 --> 00:55:04,500
The government and constitution
was democratised. Factories rebuilt.
119
00:55:05,375 --> 00:55:07,876
The economy restored.
120
00:55:12,125 --> 00:55:14,834
Not least amongst the democratic reforms...
121
00:55:15,417 --> 00:55:18,292
...was freedom of the press
and banning of censorship.
122
00:55:18,959 --> 00:55:22,500
But did you know, you ask...
123
00:55:22,626 --> 00:55:25,459
...that the US forces strictly censored
all movies at that time?
124
00:55:26,626 --> 00:55:31,459
Mount Fuji was considered a symbol
for the wrong sort of patriotism...
125
00:55:31,584 --> 00:55:35,626
...and was therefore removed from all films.
126
00:55:36,626 --> 00:55:40,751
An omission, the great irony being...
127
00:55:41,918 --> 00:55:47,083
...that this omission itself
was carefully omitted...
128
00:55:47,209 --> 00:55:51,250
...from all public mention.
129
00:56:36,959 --> 00:56:39,959
Mount Fuji's image was employed...
130
00:56:40,083 --> 00:56:42,709
...misused and manipulated...
131
00:56:42,834 --> 00:56:44,584
...by both sides.
132
00:56:45,542 --> 00:56:50,375
The military government paraded
the mountain as a call to arms...
133
00:56:50,500 --> 00:56:54,375
...a reminder of duty, loyalty...
134
00:56:54,500 --> 00:56:58,125
...homeland, nation.
135
00:56:58,250 --> 00:57:04,834
At the same time pamphlets
which were thrown out of US aeroplanes...
136
00:57:04,959 --> 00:57:08,000
...show a mountain
evoking homesickness...
137
00:57:08,125 --> 00:57:11,584
...longing for peacetime
and for family.
138
00:57:37,751 --> 00:57:39,667
Times change...
139
00:57:39,792 --> 00:57:43,876
...but the mountain never forgets.
140
00:57:45,584 --> 00:57:50,292
A silent eye which never blinks.
141
00:57:52,876 --> 00:57:58,417
The mountain sees centuries of life...
142
00:57:59,083 --> 00:58:05,959
...roll together into one brief animated scene.
143
00:58:08,459 --> 00:58:11,000
An atlas of time.
144
00:59:00,918 --> 00:59:04,751
I suspect you never saw this movie...
145
00:59:04,876 --> 00:59:10,125
...my favourite Japanese movie,
so please allow me to explain.
146
00:59:14,000 --> 00:59:18,751
Godzilla is a huge,
angry prehistoric monster...
147
00:59:18,876 --> 00:59:22,584
...with the looks of a carnivorous dinosaur...
148
00:59:22,709 --> 00:59:25,626
...and the capabilities of a nuclear bomb.
149
00:59:27,375 --> 00:59:33,375
At that time US army testing of H-bombs
in the Pacific ocean...
150
00:59:33,500 --> 00:59:37,626
...was contaminating tuna
sold in Japanese market stalls.
151
00:59:37,751 --> 00:59:41,334
And in any case the horrors of
the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki...
152
00:59:41,459 --> 00:59:44,876
...were all too fresh in people's minds.
153
00:59:49,918 --> 00:59:54,292
In the final scene of the third Godzilla film
from 1962...
154
00:59:54,417 --> 00:59:58,959
...King Kong and Godzilla engage in
a definitive battle on top of Mount Fuji.
155
01:00:00,167 --> 01:00:05,334
Eventually they both fall off Mount Fuji,
plunging into the sea.
156
01:00:06,834 --> 01:00:09,125
Godzilla disappears...
157
01:00:09,876 --> 01:00:12,667
...leaving King Kong to swim back home...
158
01:00:12,792 --> 01:00:15,792
...to the imaginary island of Faro...
159
01:00:15,918 --> 01:00:18,959
...far away in the Pacific Ocean.
160
01:02:19,500 --> 01:02:22,334
With difficulty I have pulled myself up...
161
01:02:22,459 --> 01:02:25,417
...out of a shallow and fitful sleep.
162
01:02:26,626 --> 01:02:30,042
My body is protesting and
wants to do anything but this.
163
01:02:30,709 --> 01:02:34,083
But here I am, in the dark...
164
01:02:34,209 --> 01:02:38,083
...following the narrow light
of my headlamp torch.
165
01:02:39,584 --> 01:02:42,709
Struggling, cursing...
166
01:02:42,834 --> 01:02:45,000
...and groping...
167
01:02:46,792 --> 01:02:50,459
...I have forgotten what I came here for.
168
01:02:54,250 --> 01:02:56,959
When I turn and look back down the trail...
169
01:02:57,709 --> 01:03:01,459
...I see an endless line of lights
erratically tracing its way.
170
01:03:05,250 --> 01:03:10,250
Mankind is a string of glow worms
trudging its way up a mountain.
171
01:04:06,751 --> 01:04:11,417
The last few hundred metres
were the slowest...
172
01:04:11,542 --> 01:04:13,876
...and the heaviest.
173
01:04:15,626 --> 01:04:20,209
The human body was not designed to hike
in the early hours of the morning.
174
01:04:21,834 --> 01:04:27,334
Like a blind man
my feet search for footholds.
175
01:04:30,167 --> 01:04:33,083
Like spectators at a football match...
176
01:04:33,209 --> 01:04:37,500
...a crowd of hikers sit restlessly
on the slopes facing east...
177
01:04:38,250 --> 01:04:43,500
...waiting for the first ray of light
to splash over the edge of the horizon.
178
01:04:44,459 --> 01:04:48,375
We all wait for this one moment,
for the 'Arrival of Light'.
179
01:04:49,417 --> 01:04:51,500
For Goraiko.
180
01:04:54,417 --> 01:04:59,584
When it comes
cries of excitement and enthusiasm go up.
181
01:05:01,250 --> 01:05:03,375
People stand up...
182
01:05:03,500 --> 01:05:05,459
...and raise their hands...
183
01:05:05,584 --> 01:05:08,918
...shouting Banzai! Banzai!
184
01:05:10,918 --> 01:05:14,417
Pilgrims stand and bow to greet the Sun.
185
01:05:17,209 --> 01:05:20,334
It feels like we are on another planet.
186
01:05:22,000 --> 01:05:24,709
I feel the warm Sun hitting my face...
187
01:05:25,667 --> 01:05:28,000
...as if for the very first time.
188
01:09:02,083 --> 01:09:04,918
Tanizaki writes:
189
01:09:05,792 --> 01:09:09,167
'We find beauty not in the thing itself...'
190
01:09:09,292 --> 01:09:13,459
'...but in the patterns of shadows,
the light and the darkness...'
191
01:09:14,209 --> 01:09:17,334
'...that one thing against another creates.'
192
01:09:35,542 --> 01:09:37,834
You can climb a mountain...
193
01:09:39,042 --> 01:09:41,584
...the highest mountain.
194
01:09:43,834 --> 01:09:48,250
But upon reaching the top,
you will realise...
195
01:09:49,876 --> 01:09:52,000
...there is nothing there.
196
01:11:31,834 --> 01:11:36,334
In order to catch the last bus I start
to make my way down the mountain.
197
01:11:38,792 --> 01:11:41,500
Although faster than the ascent...
198
01:11:42,042 --> 01:11:45,125
...the descent is certainly much heavier.
199
01:11:46,709 --> 01:11:50,042
My knees creak and groan.
200
01:11:51,417 --> 01:11:56,918
I break into a reluctant jog
and let gravity...
201
01:11:57,334 --> 01:11:59,626
...do its job...
202
01:12:00,459 --> 01:12:03,667
...trailing my walking stick behind me.
203
01:12:05,918 --> 01:12:10,834
The only way down is to pass through
the sea of clouds.
204
01:12:33,167 --> 01:12:37,751
It has been said, that for Westerners
Japan is a great mirror.
205
01:12:39,500 --> 01:12:42,542
I beg to differ...
206
01:12:43,500 --> 01:12:46,000
...but even if it were true...
207
01:12:46,125 --> 01:12:51,584
...do not forget that the mirror itself
is also always changing.
208
01:12:54,584 --> 01:12:57,167
Sometimes cloudy...
209
01:12:57,292 --> 01:13:00,334
...at other times shiny and new.
210
01:14:27,667 --> 01:14:29,792
The tale of Akinosuke.
211
01:14:30,876 --> 01:14:37,209
Sitting under his favourite cedar tree
with friends...
212
01:14:38,167 --> 01:14:42,209
...Akinosuke suddenly feels tired
and takes a nap.
213
01:14:43,125 --> 01:14:46,125
When he awakes his friends are gone...
214
01:14:46,250 --> 01:14:50,459
...but he sees coming towards him
a grand procession of royal attendants.
215
01:14:50,584 --> 01:14:56,209
They inform him that the King of Tokoyo
requests his presence at his palace.
216
01:14:57,459 --> 01:14:59,959
Upon arrival Akinosuke is offered...
217
01:15:00,083 --> 01:15:03,667
...the King's daughter in marriage.
218
01:15:04,584 --> 01:15:09,709
Soon he is even appointed governor
of an idyllic and bountiful island.
219
01:15:09,834 --> 01:15:11,918
His beautiful wife...
220
01:15:12,042 --> 01:15:16,292
...bears him seven bright and happy children.
221
01:15:18,334 --> 01:15:23,375
One day however his wife
suddenly falls ill and dies.
222
01:15:24,459 --> 01:15:28,709
Akinosuke goes to much trouble
to give her a befitting funeral...
223
01:15:28,834 --> 01:15:31,584
...and erects a stone monument
in her memory.
224
01:15:32,417 --> 01:15:38,000
The King sends for him, telling him not to
worry, that his children will be cared for.
225
01:15:38,792 --> 01:15:42,125
As Akinosuke sails away
and looks back...
226
01:15:42,250 --> 01:15:45,042
...the island suddenly disappears.
227
01:15:46,083 --> 01:15:49,000
And he is shocked to find himself...
228
01:15:49,125 --> 01:15:53,709
...under the cedar tree once more
with his friends...
229
01:15:53,834 --> 01:15:56,876
...to whom he relays his dream.
230
01:15:57,000 --> 01:16:02,000
They, in turn, tell him that he was
only asleep for a few moments...
231
01:16:02,125 --> 01:16:06,209
...and of a yellow butterfly
which flew out of his mouth...
232
01:16:06,334 --> 01:16:09,209
...and was grabbed by an ant.
233
01:16:09,334 --> 01:16:14,250
They wonder whether the butterfly...
234
01:16:14,375 --> 01:16:16,918
...is Akinosuke's soul.
235
01:16:18,042 --> 01:16:21,209
Digging under the cedar tree...
236
01:16:21,334 --> 01:16:23,500
...Akinosuke finds a kingdom of ants...
237
01:16:23,626 --> 01:16:27,667
...and realises that this is the kingdom
of his dream.
238
01:16:28,918 --> 01:16:33,209
Digging further he comes across
a second nest...
239
01:16:33,334 --> 01:16:38,334
...and a small stone
shaped like a monument...
240
01:16:39,125 --> 01:16:43,876
...beneath which he finds
inside a small clay coffin...
241
01:16:44,000 --> 01:16:48,709
...the body of a female ant.
19887
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