Thursday, October 26, 2023

(2994) The dead next door

Nihon_Arekore_03023_Cemetery_door_100_cl

It is one of Tokyo's (and especially East Tokyo) characteristics that take some getting used to: cemeteries among apartment buildings, usually accessible from the temple they belong to but also from a simple door in some simple wall. Because Japan has a cremation rate of 99.9%, these graves are just glorified urn storage units, usually for whole families and for many generations; especially between Asakusa and Ueno are dozens of such cemeteries since there are dozens of temples.

(For a bigger version of this picture both in color and black and white, check my "Japan Arekore" set on Flickr).

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