外人墓地

Gaijin-bochi (Foreign Cemetery) in Yokohama is not the first place you'd think about going for a stroll on a nice day, photography or even a date. But it is, in fact, a perfect place for that.

A few days ago, my sister, mom and I went to pay our respects to a few friends that are buried there. We spent about 4 hours in the graveyard reading headstones and wondering what happened to some of the deceased. There are several people buried here that had a great influence in the westernization of Yokohama (or Japan for that matter). Here are a few names: Hermann Ludwig Grauert (a German missionary; June 17, 1837-November 1, 1901), Samuel Cocking (1842-February 26, 1914: a British merchant that built the city's first power plant and more), J.H. Morgan (1873-1937: a great American architect. Several of the structures that he built are still being used in Yamate and Yamashita-cho). Samuel Cocking also built a water reservoir and a tropical garden in 1880 on Enoshima. The reservoir was destroyed in 1923 during the Great Kanto Earthquake. The ruins of the reservoir is still visible today and it and the garden are preserved by the city of Fujisawa. I posted a photo of the ruins in this series.

As you can see in some of the photos, there were graves with newly laid flowers and a change of water. But there were also many, many graves that were forgotten for what seemed to be years and years some dated in the 1800's and others in the 1900's. It makes you wonder if they have relatives still alive somewhere in this world. If so, I'm sure they don't even know that their ancestor/s are buried at Gaijin Bochi. There were several headstones that read the date September 1, 1923, the day of the "Great Kanto Earthquake." I can't imagine what they went through that day nor do I want to.

Gaijin-bochi began with the demands from Commodore Matthew Perry. One of his sailors died of pneumonia aboard the Black Ship while anchored just off Yokohama. Commodore Perry demanded that there be a burial place specifically for foreigners. The Japanese government agreed and designated a spot for foreigners. That sailor was the first one to be buried in Gaijin-bochi. But his body was then moved to Shimoda, his final resting place.

Anyway, I'm no one to give anyone a history lesson. But I will say that Gaijin-bochi is a very interesting place to visit and I do recommend that you do visit the next time you are in Yokohama.