Yanaka Cemetery

Yanaka Cemetery

The Tokyo audio-guided tour invites you to quiet contemplation in Yanaka Cemetery, one of the finest and most history-laden of the city, where many great figures of Japan rest.

A place of memory of the Meiji era

There rest great painters, sculptors and statesmen of the Meiji period, as well as the very last shogun of the Edo era, Tokugawa Yoshinobu. A closed part is dedicated to the Tokugawa clan, which reigned over Japan for more than two and a half centuries. The cemetery adjoins the Buddhist temple Tennoji, to which it once belonged: in 1868, at the transition to the Meiji era, Buddhism and Shinto were distinguished, and public cemeteries were created. With more than seven thousand graves spread over some ten hectares, the place is sublimated in spring by its cherry trees in bloom.

What there is to see

The cemetery can be walked in contemplation, among its alleys lined with cherry trees and its graves of great figures of Japanese history. One also finds there the foundations of a former five-storey pagoda, which had inspired a novel by the writer Koda Rohan in 1892, and was destroyed by a fire in 1957. It is a place of memory imbued with serenity, to be discovered with respect.

Practical information

Yanaka Cemetery is near Ueno Park, in Tokyo. A place of burial, it can be walked freely on foot during the day, in silence and the respect due to those who rest there. Access is on the level; the cherry trees bloom in spring.

Who rests in Yanaka Cemetery?

Great figures of the Meiji era and the last shogun of the Edo era, Tokugawa Yoshinobu; a part is dedicated to the Tokugawa clan.

Why is Yanaka Cemetery remarkable?

For its setting of cherry trees, its graves of great historical figures and its atmosphere of serenity, one of the finest cemeteries of Tokyo.