{Inter} Cultural Japan

What is a nicer place for a quiet, meditative stroll than a graveyard? Reading the stones, thinking about the transcience of life… In Tokyo, there is an added incentive: some cemeteries have beautiful old trees, while others are graced by cherry trees that create a pink riot in spring. In other words, Tokyo’s graveyards are among the few patches of green in the metropolis!

Until the end of the Edo-period, all Japanese were buried in temple graveyards - and in fact, for most that is still the final resting place. The public graveyard, not bound to any particular religion and run by the local government, is a Meiji-period import from the West. There are eight such cemeteries in Tokyo, the largest and newest far away in the western suburbs. These are not much use if you want to go for a Sunday stroll. But happily, there are also three major graveyards in central Tokyo, within the circle of the Yamanote Line: Aoyama, Zoshigaya and Yanaka (a fourth and smaller one is Somei Reien).

Almost a sort of public parks, together with the Edo-period gardens in the city, these are the green lungs of the metropolis. Although densely populated, they are at the same time immensely quiet. There is also nothing repellent about Japanese graveyards, as the grave is only a monument containing some ashes - thanks to the custom of cremation, no interment of bodies takes place (except in the gaijin botchi, the foreigner’s section). Let’s take a stroll at these three graveyards - and, by the way, you don’t have to keep an eye open for a place here, because all cemeteries in Tokyo are chock-full…

[Grave of Natsume Soseki]

Zoshigaya Cemetery (Zoshigaya Reien)

5-min walk from the Zoshigaya stop on the Toden Arakawa Line, or a 10-min walk from Higashi-Ikebukuro St on the Yurakucho Line.

The Zoshigaya Cemetery is a wonderful patch of green right under the smoke of Ikebukuro. It was founded in 1874 on the estate where the falconers of the shogun used to live and is 110,000 sq. m. large. Those falconers looked after the hawks and dogs used by the shogun on his (not infrequent) hunting expeditions. Another group of people living in this area performed odd jobs or zoshi for the shogun, and they have left their name to the district and its cemetery.

[Grave of Lafcadio Hearn]

Zoshigaya is characterized by large, stately zelkova trees and avenues lined with gingkos. Under this expansive foliage one finds the graves of several literary giants: the great Meiji novelist (and haiku poet) Natsume Soseki (1867-1916) rests in a monumental grave; the author of Tokyo’s demi-monde, Nagai Kafu (1879-1959) can be found here; and the Irish-American author Lafcadio Hearn (or Koizumi Yakumo, 1850-1904), author of Kwaidan and other essays and stories about Meiji Japan, occupies a modest plot under a leafy tree. Many foreigners residing in Japan visit this last grave, for are we not all a sort of latter-day Lafcadios? A famous painter of melancholy women portraits is Takehisa Yumeji (1884-1934). The administrative office, next to the ceremony hall in the middle of the cemetery, sells a map of the graveyard for a small fee to aid you in your further explorations. But the best thing of Zoshigaya are the magnificent trees.

[path in the Yanaka Graveyard]

Yanaka Cemetery (Yanaka Reien)

1-min from Nippori St on the JR Yamanote Line.

The Yanaka Cemetery was also established in 1874, by taking over land from a temple, Tennoji. It lies on the top of a cliff, a sort of table land, next to the Yamanote Line between Nippori and Uguisudani and harbors 7,000 graves on its 100,3000 sq. meters. The road running through the center of the cemetery to Tennoji is lined with cherry trees. In the middle also sits a police post and next to that are the foundations of what once was the proud five-storied pagoda of Tennoji, a building that went up in flames in 1957 due to a double love suicide. Tennoji is one of the older temples of Edo, but there is not much left of it besides a much-battered bronze Buddha statue sitting in the open.

[Grave of Yoshinobu, the last shogun]

The most famous residents of the Yanaka Cemetery are the great Japanese-style painter Yokoyama Taikan (1868-1958) and the last shogun, Yoshinobu. The shogun rests in a special plot that is administered by Kaneiji, the family temple of the Tokugawas, but the route there is clearly signposted. He is protected by a sturdy fence. Another well-known painter lying in Yanaka is Kaburagi Kiyokata (1878-1972), who excelled in Japanese-style paintings of “beautiful women” (bijinga). There are many authors here, too, (ranging from Enchi Fumiko to translator Ueda Bin and novelist Futabatei Shimei), but you will also find koto player and composer Miyagi Michio (1894-1956), the Russian Greek-Orthodox priest Nicolai (of the famous cathedral in Kanda) and businessman Shibuzawa Eiichi (1840-1931), who set up many companies that are still going strong and also founded the Tokyo Chamber of Commerce. Yanaka is interesting for all these celebrities, but also for its location, on the cliff above the JR line, its sakura and the presence of Tennoji.

[Foreigner’s graves in Aoyama Botchi]

Aoyama Cemetery (Aoyama Reien)

15 min from Omotesando St on the Ginza, Hanzomon and Chiyoda lines; 5 min from Nogizaka St on the Chiyoda line; 5 min from Gaienmae St on the Ginza line; 5 min from Aoyama-Itchome St on the Ginza, Hanzomon and Oedo lines.

The Aoyama Cemetery (or Aoyama Botchi as it is popularly called) is a popular place for hanami, viewing the cherry blossoms in early April. Around that time the graveyard is overrun by groups of people who sit between the graves drinking and pick-nicking. It is beautiful indeed, as the streets lined with trees form veritable sakura tunnels - but the idea to have a boisterous good time on a graveyard does not appeal to me. On the other hand, cherry blossoms are the symbol of transcience: a short blossoming and a quick death - they fall down like the chopped-off heads of samurai. But I doubt the drunken parties do spend any time on such serious thoughts.

Aoyama Reien was founded in 1874 (again! - this was a grave year) on part of the huge former estate of the Aoyama lords. The first lord, Tadanari, had been one of Tokugawa Ieyasu’s closest retainers and had been amply rewarded for his services. It is huge - more than 117,000 people lie buried on its 270,000 sq. meters - making it more than double the size of the Zoshigaya and Yanaka cemeteries together. The cemetery lies in a triangle between Gaien Nishi-dori and Gaien Higashi-dori and is crossed by a road leading from Kotto-dori to the Nogizaka Tunnel, and a one-way traffic road from Azabu to Aoyama-dori - this is the famous sakura tunnel. There is a lot of greenery again, in great variation, and one also has a good view of the new Roppongi Hills Tower rising above the grave stones.

Let us have a look at the cemetery’s inhabitants. In the first place, perhaps because it is so close to the political center of Tokyo, Aoyama harbors many statesmen, among them several of the great figures of the Meiji-period, such as one of the earliest Meiji leaders Okubo Toshimichi (1830-1878), who was assassinated after the Satsuma rebellion. Another politician who was murdered in the violent thirties was Inukai Tsuyoshi (1855-1932) - his death marked the end of party politics and the beginning of the sliding slope to disaster in WWII. All those VIPs have been honored with huge stone slabs, Shinto gates, stone lanterns and other frenzies, which keep visitors from becoming bored in this cemetery. A more modern politician is Yoshida Shigeru (1878-1967), the first prime minister of Japan after WWII.

A military man in the cemetery is the famous general Nogi Maresuke (1849-1912), who committed suicide with his wife on the day of the funeral of the Meiji Emperor. Nogi had fought for the government in the Satsuma Rebellion, but more than that, he was the leading general in the war with Russia in Manchuria, where he lost 75,000 soldiers out of 270,000, including his own sons. It has been suggested that it was sadness over these losses rather than nationalist fervor which spurred him to his action, although his suicide made him into a symbol of old-fashioned loyalty. In nearby Nogizaka, you can still see his house (now paired with a Shinto shrine, set up by the army) - the most interesting part is not the bloody tatami mat in the living room, but the red-brick stable where he housed the white horse given him by a Russian general. Nogi’s grave, however, lacks all pomp and is just a simple stone set with some others in a separate section.

[Aoyama Botchi]

From murky politics we turn to culture. There are many artists resting in the Aoyama Cemetery. To name a few: Shiga Naoya (1883-1971), underrated in the West, but one of the best 20th c. Japanese authors; tanka poet Saito Mokichi (1882-1953); and less well-known authors as Okamoto Kido (1872-1939), Ozaki Koyo (1867-1903) and Kunikida Doppo (1871-1908). Okamoto Kido was a playwright who wrote a grisly play about the murder of Yoshiie, the son of the first Kamakura Shogun Yoritomo (see Shuzenji in the 108 Temple Pilgrimage for an account of this tragedy). Famous painters are the Japanese-style painter Fujishima Takeji (1867-1943) and Okada Saburosuke (1869-1939), who worked in the Western style with oil. More famous in the West is Teshigahara Sofu (1900-1979), who founded the Sogetsu school of ikebana. Ichikawa Danjuro IX (1838-1903), finally, was a popular Kabuki actor - you will find his statue in the grounds of Sensoji Temple in Asakusa.

And then we still have the gaijin botchi, the foreigners section. This is not as large as the Foreigners Cemetery in Yokohama, but an interesting figure resting here is, for example, Edoardo Chiossone (1832-1898), an gravure artist who came to Japan to teach the art of printing and who designed bank notes for the Bank of Japan. He is even more famous for the portrait he made of the Meiji Emperor. Other are missionaries or journalists, as Frank Warrington Eastlake (1858-1905).

[Grave of the faithful dog Hachiko]

I have kept the best for the last. Who does not know the faithful dog Hachiko (an Akita-ken), whose statue stands in front of Shibuya Station? Hachiko always met his master, Professor Ueno Eizaburo at the station when his master returned from a teaching job at Tokyo University. On an afternoon in May 1925, the dog kept waiting and waiting, but no Pressor Ueno. In fact, the Professor had died of a stroke while at the university. The faithful dog kept coming back day after day at three o’clock, hoping to find his master. This went on for many years and Hachiko became famous around Shibuya Station. People would feed him and give him shelter. Hachiko therefore became a symbol of loyalty, a General Nogi under the dogs. In 1934, after ten years, the faithful dog himself died in front of the station. Money poured in from around the country to set up a bronze statue in his memory - this statue in front of the station now is a popular meeting point, although the sculpture itself is in its second reincarnation as the original one was used to make bullets in WWII. The grave of Ueno Eizaburo can be found in Aoyama, and as a notice tells us, also the faithful dog has been buried here, together again with his master. Well… in fact, only small part of the dog, because you will also find him, stuffed and well, in the National Science Museum in Ueno.