Who Is Tsuki no Iwakasa?
The envoy who burned the elixir on Mount Fuji
Tsuki no Iwakasa is the Emperor's envoy in the final scene of The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter, the man who burned the elixir of immortality that Princess Kaguya left behind.
After Kaguya returned to the Moon, the Emperor lamented, "If I can never see her again, what use is a medicine that keeps me from dying?" He sent Iwakasa to the mountain in Suruga Province said to be closest to heaven and ordered him to burn Kaguya's letter and the jar of elixir at the summit. Iwakasa climbed the mountain with many soldiers and burned them as commanded.
The tale explains that because he climbed with many ("fu," rich in) soldiers ("shi"), the mountain was named "Fuji." Another widely known reading is that it is called "Fuji" because the elixir of immortality ("fushi," "no death") was burned there. The tale ends by saying that its smoke still rises into the clouds to this day.
