富士山の吉田口登山道における茶屋の変遷とその構法

<p> On Mt. Fuji, especially from the late Edo era, great numbers of pilgrims who belonged to Fuji-ko societies made worship ascents from the Yoshida Trail. Wooden huts, serving as teahouses, provided pilgrims with water from Sengen shrine at the foot of Mt. Fuji to the 5th station. Above the 5th station, stone huts managed lodgings. However, in Showa 39 (1964), the teahouses were closed upon the opening of the Fuji Subaru Line, a scenic toll road to the 5th station. As we have already confirmed the transition and construction method of stone huts from the Edo era to the Showa 30s, here, we investigate the teahouses by examining historical materials and conducting field surveys on their remains on the Yoshida Trail.</p><p> Mt. Fuji climbing tourism continued to evolve. At the end of the Taisho era (–1926), the locations and numbers of teahouses that had been established during the end of the Edo era changed. In particular, new construction occurred around the 5.5th station. The teahouse floor plans inherited from the Edo era consisted of a room with an earthen floor, a living room, and a fireplace. We found three other types of floor plans for the main hut based on documents drawn in the Showa 30s. The first divided the room and included a kitchen instead of a fireplace, the second expanded the lean-to roof and added rooms underneath, and the third, which was based on the former two, extended guestrooms along the trail. Furthermore, more than half of the teahouses had attached huts. These plans show how the teahouses changed and added rooms from the Edo era to the Showa era.</p><p> The teahouse construction method was simple, involving local resources, stones and wood, and opened to the trail. Many wooden members were not lumbers but logs and some parts seemed to be nonprofessionally finished. The narrow rectangular floor plans along the trail were hirairi (enter from the parallel side of the edge of roof) and had gable or hipped roof. The interior consisted of an earthen floor at the entrance and a wooden floor in the living room with a fireplace or a kitchen. The roof structure had no ceiling. The expanded guestrooms were covered with tatami mats and had a tokonoma (alcove) and saobuchi tenjyo (decorative ceiling). The roof was covered with shingles and initially held in place with stones, followed by zinc-coated steel. The outer walls and the inner partitions were composed of wooden boards. The outer walls were initially boarded with nuki (joinery) between the columns, and later covered again with weatherboards. The teahouses seemed to have been constructed using nearly the same method, independent of location.</p><p> In addition, more than half of the teahouses had a resting place, and two types of construction methods depending on the location were confirmed. Below the 1st station, the width of the trail was wide, and teahouses lined both sides of the trail. Resting places were found under the lean-to roofs facing the trail. Above the 3rd station, where the trail was narrow, rest huts were found opposite the main hut. These attached rest huts, which appeared to be of temporary construction, were located on the valley side of the trail and provided a magnificent view. These resting places were also constructed of logs.</p>