The Foreigners' Section of Aoyama Cemetery. The text on the plinth reads: “In Memoriam / Laid to rest here in the Foreign / Section of the Aoyama Cemetery / are men and women who came to / Japan in the 19th and early 20th / centuries. Many of them played / leading roles and contributed / greatly to the modernization of / Japan. / We have erected this monument / to commemorate their / achievements and ensure their / memory is passed on to posterity. / March, 2007 / Shintaro Ishihara / Governor of Tokyo / [text in Japanese on left side]”

Although Aoyama Cemetery is most famous for the 200 cherry blossom trees that line the central thoroughfare, this huge 26,000-square-meter park in the heart of Tokyo offers a wonderful respite from noise and congestion every day of the year. There are plans to turn it into a tourist attraction, with signposts and hiking routes, but in fact the park is already a very popular strolling place. Aoyama Cemetery boasts some big names from Japanese history: assassinated Prime Minister Tsuyoshi Inukai; poet and novelist Doppo Kunikida; romantic fiction writer Koyo Ozaki; politician Toshimichi Okubo; poet Mokichi Saito and writer Shiga Naoya. Established in 1872, the cemetery is organized in a grid pattern and around the main crisscrossing roads. (from a compilation of Mr. Richard Jeffery)

Information sign (in Japanese only) at the Foreigners' Section of Aoyama Cemetery. Lists major family plots in katakana.

map of famous graves; see indexed numbers in other separate photos

Foreign cemetery sign