Mount Fuji

The old man and his wife wept bitter tears, but it did no good. Someone read them the letter Kaguyahime had written, but they refused to drink the medicine.

"Why should we want to remain alive? Who is there to live for now? Nothing matters now!"

They just lay where they were, and were soon put to bed sick.

The guards officer withdrew his men from the bamboo cutter's house and returned to the emperor's palace. He reported in detail how they had been unable to fight the heavenly beings and stop them, and he delivered the letter and the bottle of medicine. When the emperor unfolded the letter and looked at it, he became sadder than ever. He no longer even felt like eating. Then he called in the ministers and high officials.

"Which mountain comes closest to heaven?"

"There's a mountain in Suruga. It's close to the capital here, and also very high."(5)

The emperor then wrote a poem which he attached to the bottle of immortality medicine and handed to a messenger.

We'll never meet again.
And so my eyes are shedding tears
Enough to make me float
How long should I live like this?
The medicine's no good to me.

The poem and medicine was given to Tsuki no Iwagasa, who was commanded to take it to the top of the mountain in Suruga. There he was to burn the poem and the medicine. Iwagasa took a large group of warriors to the top of the mountain, and carried out the imperial command. Since then the mountain, which cannot die, has been called Fuji. It is said that even now the smoke continues to climb up to the clouds above it.