When did the old Yoshida trail stations shut?

Was hiking Fuji from the Yoshida Sengen Jinja last month, was actually pretty spooky passing all the ruinous buildings along the path in fog with 20m visibility. But I was wondering around what year they closed and what year the fifth station bus service started?

From the conditions of the ruins I saw it had to have been at least a few decades since the first to fourth stations went out of business, but google has failed me here. Anyone know? Thanks in advance.

I first hiked that section in 1983. The shrines at the first 5 stations were already "closed" and falling down at that time. At a couple, the bronze or stone incense burners were still in operation, as they had burning incense sticks in them as I passed. Very few people start at the Shrine anymore and instead use the bus to Gogome, the 5th station, which was operating at that time but I didn't use it.

The present 5th station with the bus is Shin-Gogome, or "New 5th Station." The old one is a little below and to the east of the new one.

Thanks for the info. Already collapsed by the 80's huh, guess it would have had to have been at least another few decades before that then.

Yeah the old fifth station was in better condition if I recall correctly, at least it was still standing.

Just as a guess, if you can find when the road was built along with Shin-Gogome, that would be when the lower part of the mountain lost its traffic.

Ahhh good point, Japanese wikipedia seems to say it opened in 1964, so I guess the last died out then, (unless there was a preexisting route).