Somei Cemetery

Mito Tokugawa graves at Somei Cemetery

• Japanese: 染井霊園 (Somei reien)

Somei Cemetery, located in Toshima-ku, Tokyo, and established in the Meiji period, is the smallest of the metropolitan (i.e. prefectural) public cemeteries.

It is home to the Somei variety of the Yoshino cherry tree, and the graves of many significant historical figures, including a number of members of the Mito Tokugawa clan; sculptor Takamura Kôun and his son, poet and sculptor Takamura Kôtarô; medical scholar Tsuboi Shinryô and his son, anthropologist & archaeologist Shôgorô; and the art historian & curator Okakura Kakuzô.

The graveyard of Jigen-ji temple is immediately adjacent to Somei Cemetery, and contains the graves of Shiba Kôkan, Saitô Kakki, Akutagawa Ryûnosuke, and Kobayashi Heihachirô.

References

• Plaques on-site.