Cherry blossoms with the dearly departed: The most sacred 'sakura' experience in Tokyo
Friday, 13 Mar 2020 08:27 AM MYTThe sight of cherry blossoms as one approaches Yanaka Cemetery is breathtaking. — Pictures by CK Lim
Yanaka is no ordinary cemetery. Besides Ichiyo Higuchi, it is also home to other Japanese luminaries such as the last shogun of the Tokugawa shogunate, Tokugawa Yoshinobu. There are more than 7,000 graves here, which makes it a bit of a labyrinth.Besides the prestige of its venerable occupants, Yanaka is also beloved for its serene cherry blossom viewing ambience every spring.
Quiet and stately, Yanaka still retains much of the pre-war charm. We make our way between rows of oldshophouses. There is daily trade here but without any of the manic bustle of the city centre. No loudspeaker exhortations to buy the latest gadget in a stream of foreign languages. We pass by the ruins of the Five-Storied Pagoda that caught fire in 1957. The pagoda had been a gift from a Buddhist temple called Tenno-ji. The cemetery, we learn, used to be part of the temple.Locals commemorate springtime and grave cleaning with a 'hanami' picnic.
Poets sit beneath trees, looking for inspiration. We recall stumbling upon a painting in progress beneath the cherry trees by Sosuke Kimura, the acclaimed Japanese calligrapher. Copying lines from a book of poetry, he painted on long rolls of parchment flattened on the pavement.
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