In Japanese, the distance for climbing a mountain is measured in units of gō. A gō is one-tenth of the distance from the base of the mountain to its summit.

Mt. Fuji not only has gods who represent it, but also buddhas. A monk who played an influential role in this belief is “Matsudai” in the 12th century. He built a hall enshrining the Buddha Vairocana, or “Dainichi” in Japanese, at the summit of Mt. Fuji. Riding the momentum of this, he then went on to place Buddhist statues all over the mountain.

Dainichi is also enshrined here at the 1/10th mark of the mountain, but as to not forget the gods of Shinto, the name of the building was called Dainichi Shrine instead of Dainichi Temple, as if the god and buddha became one, a special characteristic of religion in Japan. That period of mixing gods and buddhas lasted a long time, until the anti-Buddhism movement in the Meiji period. In order to separate gods from buddhas, the images of buddhas were almost completely destroyed and removed from Mt. Fuji. Despite this, up until now over 30 Buddhist statues have been found (80 if you include Shinto statues).

This Suzuhara Shrine, which was constructed around 1838, is one of the oldest buildings that still exists on the mountain.