Mount Fuji's Last Eruption

December 16, 1707

Two weeks after a massive earthquake, Mount Fuji erupted from a new vent on its southeastern flank, raining volcanic ash on Edo a hundred kilometers away. Fields in Suruga province were buried. The eruption, called Hōei, was Fuji's last - the sacred mountain has slept since, its snow-capped silence more unsettling for being temporary.