These are photographs of headstones in Zōshigaya Cemetery. Located in Tokyo's Toshima Ward, the cemetery (address: 4-25-1 Minami Ikebukuro) can be reached on foot from either Ikebukuro Station (about 20 minutes) or the Higashi Ikebukuro subway station (Yūrakuchō Line, about 7 minutes). A far more interesting option -- almost worth the ride on its own --is to take the Arakawa Line streetcar direct to Zōshigaya Station (transfer from JR at ōtsuka Station). Tokyo assumed administrative control over the cemetery in 1874 and gave it its current official name (Zōshigaya Ryōen) in 1935. The transfer of rights to burial plots has been prohibited since 1962. A detailed map (in Japanese only) with names and locations of the most visited graves is available from the cemetery's administrative office for a reasonable "donation" of 100 yen.

  • Natsume Sōseki, 1867-1916

    Approach everything rationally, and you become harsh. Pole along in the stream of emotions, and you will be swept away by the current. Give free rein to your desires, and you become uncomfortably confined. It is not a very agreeable place to live, this world of ours.

    --The Three-Cornered World

  • Lafcadio Hearn (Koizumi Yakumo), 1850-1904
    Hearn's grave is on the right; that of his wife Setsuko is on the left.
  • Lafcadio Hearn (Koizumi Yakumo), 1850-1904
    The three headstones in the Koizumi plot.
  • Nagai Kafū 1879-1959
    Kafū's grave is on the right.
  • Izumi Kyōka 1873-1939
  • Izumi Kyōka 1873-1939
    The reverse side of the headstone, showing Kyōka's posthumous name.
  • Narushima Ryūhoku, 1778-1862
  • Shimamura Hōgetsu, 1871-1918
  • Iwano Hōmei, 1873-1920
  • Takehisa Yumeji, 1884-1934
  • Nakahama (John) Manjirō, 1827-1898
  • Tōjō Hideki, 1884-1948
Thumbnail panels:
Now Loading

View more (and larger) photographs by starting the following Flash slideshow, based on a Picasa Web Album (the intervals are set to five seconds). Clicking on a photograph will take you to the Picasa Web Album itself, where you can view the photos in full size and also locate them on Google Maps or Google Earth.