Mount Fuji looms large as Japan’s tallest mountain and one of its most enduring national symbols. Its snowy peak has inspired countless paintings and poems over the centuriesfc188, and more recently been featured on travel brochures and merchandise.

But this year, Fuji went without its snow cap for the longest period since records began 130 years ago. While smatterings of snow usually begin to appear in early October, the mountain’s peak remained bare into November. The first observable snow on Fuji was reported early Wednesday morning, the local news media said.

The mountain has long been revered as a spiritual, political and cultural symbol, in part because its snowy cap — which often remains even as smaller mountaintops thaw — is said to lend it an eternal quality. As October turned to November, many Japanese found its bare peak disquieting.

“This is the first time we haven’t seen snow on the mountain in November,” said Takefumi Sakaki, an official from Fujiyoshida City, at the foot of the mountain. “Everyone feels strange not seeing snow in November.”

At 12,389 feet tall, Mount Fuji is an active volcano that is covered in snow for most of the year. But for about two months between July and September, climbers are allowed to trek on its conical slopes.

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