Nenba, Lake Sai

The Nenba district lies at the western end of Lake Sai, one of the Fuji Five Lakes. Here the restored village of Saiko Iyashi-no-Sato Nenba preserves thatched farmhouses of the kabuto-zukuri (helmet-roof) style, and in spring, when the weeping cherries bloom, blossom, thatch, and lake come together in a single harmonious scene.

The origin of Lake Sai preserves the memory of one of Mt. Fuji’s greatest eruptions. A vast lake once spread across this land — Senoumi, “the sea of Se” — continuous with the present Lake Motosu and Lake Shōji. In the great eruption of 864 (Jōgan 6), in the Heian period, lava flows poured down and buried most of Senoumi, splitting it into Lake Sai and Lake Shōji. The forest that grew upon that lava plateau is Aokigahara Jukai. Lake Sai, also called the “western sea,” was an important station of the Uchi-Hakkai-meguri, the circuit of eight lakes at the mountain’s foot where Fujikō practitioners performed water austerities. The Ryūgū cave near the lakeshore was held sacred as the dwelling of the dragon deity of water; the legend of Toyotama-hime became attached to it, and rites for rain are said to have been performed there.

The village of Nenba was a mountain hamlet of thatched houses standing on the slope between lake and mountain, but in September 1966 (Shōwa 41) a debris flow unleashed by a typhoon destroyed the village and took many lives. The survivors resettled across the lake, and the site of the village long remained empty ground. In later years the kabuto-zukuri farmhouses of former times were rebuilt as the Iyashi-no-Sato — “village of healing” — and the lost mountain-village landscape was brought back to life.

Lake Sai is a component of the World Cultural Heritage “Fujisan, sacred place and source of artistic inspiration.” In the figure of Fuji seen beyond the restored thatched roofs is reflected the long history of a community that has lived with the mountain through eruption and disaster alike.