Manhole Monday: Shizuoka

This post is part of a series on artistic manhole covers around Japan.

It’s Mt Fuji climbing season again. The trails opened around the first of July and each day, hundreds of hikers tackle Japan’s sacred peak. I’ll post a bit more on how to do the actual climb in another entry but for this week’s manhole cover, I thought I’d pick a design that honored the famous mountain.

I found this colorful cover in downtown Shizuoka, the capital city of Shizuoka Prefecture. As the design attests, Mt Fuji is the prefecture’s dominant symbol, visible from at least half the communities in the region. On a clear day, catching sight of snow-covered Fuji above the vibrant tea fields of Shizuoka is a breathtaking sight.

The samurai armor in the foreground most likely represents the Tokugawa family’s connection to the city. As mentioned in the Crash Course on the Tokugawas, Shizuoka was the original burial place of the first Tokugawa shogun, Ieyasu. The his physical remains were mostly moved to the mausoleum at Nikko, he is still considered to be enshrined at Shizuoka’s Kunozan Toshogu Shrine.