Bereaved families and others gathered on Sunday to mourn those who perished in an eruption of Mount Ontake in central Japan six years ago.

The eruption left 58 people dead and five missing at the popular climbing destination. It was Japan's deadliest volcanic disaster since World War Two.

NHK has learned that a research team of archaeologists and volcanologists have found that Mount Fuji's Hoei eruption in 1707 burned a settlement near the crater.

Little was known about the settlement in the Subashiri district in Oyama Town, Shizuoka Prefecture other than what is written in old documents, as it was completely buried under about 3 meters of ashes, and new homes were built over it.