Savants have sought to explain the secret of Mt Fuji's subtly
concave slopes for more than a century. Now they're getting
close It was the curve that captivated him – the line that
falls, steeply at first, from Mt Fuji’s shoulders, then at an
ever-shallower angle until, at Omiya, it blends softly into the
horizontal. So elegant was this line, he speculated, that it
might have inspired the elegant cusping of Japan’s house roofs
and castle walls. Merely to admire this mysterious curve
wouldn't do, though. As a Victorian scientist, he had to explain
it. John Milne had joined the staff of the Imperial College of
Engineering in Tokyo in 1876. He’d already packed several
geological expeditions into his 26 years, including forays to
Sinai and Newfoundland. Even his journey to Japan was an
adventure; to avoid a long sea voyage, he travelled from England
via Russia, riding part of the way on a dog-sled across the
Siberian snows. As one of 3,000 or so ‘o-yatoi’ or foreign
technical experts hired by the Meiji government