The Thousand-Yen-Bill View of Mt. Fuji

The image on Japan's 1,000-yen banknote is based on a 1935 photograph called Kohan no haru by photographer Okada Koyo, showing Mt. Fuji reflected across Lake Motosuko framed by forested hillsides. Okada was a pioneer of mountain photography in Japan and spent decades documenting Mt. Fuji from around the Fuji Five Lakes region, where local residents knew him well. The viewpoint where he took that photograph can still be reached today: a 1-kilometer trail northwest of the lake takes about 30 minutes with some steep climbing. The Okada Koyo Art Museum opened in 2004 in nearby Oshino, the village where he first encountered the mountain at age 21.