Utagawa Sadahide
1858

Mt. Fuji was a sacred mountain worshipped from ancient times. In the middle of the Edo period, commoners also began to climb the mountain as a form of worship and to receive blessings. For some devote pilgrims, exploring the inner caverns of Mt. Fuji, that was symbolically compared to a womb was a part of their pilgrimage route. Many wore white garments representing the cleansing of the mind and body through the rebirth of traveling the caves (wombs) and tunnels (birth canal).