Fujinomiya-shi

In the latest Population Census the population is about 128,000 (128,105 in 2020). What should be noted here is that the increase of over ten thousand, from 121,779 in 2005 to 132,001 in 2010, is not the result of natural increase. It is due to the incorporation of a neighboring town in 2010, and the step in the numbers mirrors that merger.

With that in view, looking inside the figures after the merger, from 132,001 in 2010 to 128,105 in 2020 it fell by about four thousand in ten years. Those under 15 thinned by about three thousand three hundred in twenty years, from 19,091 in 2000 to 15,768 in 2020. The share aged 65 and over rose from 16.1% in 2000 to 29.6% in 2020, up to near three in ten. The household-with-children share is 22.1% (2020), the Childcare Waitlist has been zero in recent years, and the Fiscal Capacity Index was 0.84 in fiscal 2023. The figure of a mature provincial city, where gentle population decline and aging proceed at once, appears in the numbers. Why it takes this shape cannot be read without going back over the history of the temple-gate town and paper-making.

Fujinomiya’s skeleton is set by one shrine sitting at the city’s center. There are many Sengen shrines across the country that make Mount Fuji their object of worship, but the one held to be their head shrine is Fujisan Hongu Sengen Taisha in Omiya of this city. The first shrine of Suruga Province, a place to worship Fuji from afar and a starting point for those who climb Fuji, it has gathered many worshippers of old. What opened before that great shrine is Omiya, the center of Fujinomiya. Faith in Fuji became this city’s foundation as a temple-gate town.

That town of faith took on another face in the modern age. The rain and snow fallen on Mount Fuji, over a long time, flow through the ground and appear at the foot as rich spring water — this water of Fuji drew into this area the paper-making industry, which needs a great deal of water to make paper. Fujinomiya became one of the foundations of the paper-making industry spread across the Fuji region, coming to hold two characters: a temple-gate town of faith and, at once, a town of the industry that uses water.

What decided the shape of the present city area was the Heisei merger. In 2010, Fujinomiya incorporated the neighboring Shibakawa Town and added the area along the Fuji River to its city area. The Shibakawa area, too, was a land deeply tied to paper, where paper factories had located since the Meiji era. Beginning as a temple-gate town of faith in Fuji, becoming a paper-making town that uses Fuji’s water, and widening its city area by merger — this city’s shape stands upon the history of a temple-gate town and paper-making.

What characterizes Fujinomiya is that, while its population decline is gentle, the decrease of children and the aging proceed steadily. In the ten years after the merger the total population fell by about four thousand, and those under 15 thinned by about three thousand three hundred in twenty years. There is no large outflow, but the thinning of births and the outflow of the young generation quietly take effect — a form common to mature provincial cities.

The numbers of living infrastructure also mirror this change. The primary schools, long at nineteen, increased to twenty-three with the incorporation of Shibakawa Town in 2010, and have since kept twenty-three. Even as children decline gently, the school network dispersed across the widened city area is maintained. The Childcare Waitlist has stayed zero in recent years, but this has a strong aspect of supply and demand balancing as the number of children thins. The town that flourished as a temple-gate town of faith in Fuji and became a paper-making town that uses Fuji’s water is now amid gentle population decline and aging. The total population quietly decreases, children thin, and the aging reaches near three in ten — the figure of a provincial city where several currents proceed at once appears in the numbers. The numbers, by themselves, do not fix their meaning.

Fujinomiya holds several functions of its own. One is the character of a temple-gate town holding the head shrine of all the Sengen shrines across the country that worship Mount Fuji, gathering people of old as a place to worship Fuji from afar and a starting point for those who climb Fuji. Another is the paper-making industry that uses Fuji’s underground water, holding two faces at once: a city of faith and, at the same time, a city of the industry that uses water. And the landform itself, the southwestern foot of Mount Fuji, is the source of both the faith and the water.

Fujinomiya is a temple-gate town where two things that came from the same mountain — faith in Fuji and Fuji’s water — overlap. From the temple-gate town of the head shrine, to the paper-making town that uses Fuji’s water, and to the city area widened by merger — the history of "the head shrine of the shrines that worship Fuji sitting here" called the gate town and the worshippers, and set the city’s skeleton. Worshippers gather before the gate of the head shrine that enshrines Fuji, and that same water of Fuji has turned the factories that make paper. Faith and industry, separate things, have both come down from one mountain.