Yanaka Cemetery
Yanaka, Tokyo
Source: tokyo-park.or.jp, checked 5 Oct 2026.
Yanaka Cemetery is more park than cemetery, with wide tree-lined avenues, cats everywhere and the hush of old Tokyo. It's one of the best cherry blossom walks in the city, and there are almost no tourist crowds along the main avenue.
More photos of Yanaka Cemetery
Insider tip
Free and always open. Add Yanaka Ginza shopping street and you've got a half day in old Tokyo.
What the guides say about Yanaka Cemetery
Quiet. Yanaka Cemetery has a cherry-lined central avenue that locals walk in near silence. Koishikawa Korakuen is a stroll garden with weeping cherries over the pond rather than a picnic lawn, so there's nobody claiming ground. Inokashira Park in Kichijoji is busy on weekends but calm on a weekday morning, with boats out under the trees.
Yanaka sits on the hill north-west of Ueno Park, between Nippori Station and Nezu. It largely escaped both the 1923 earthquake fires and the wartime bombing, so its lanes still follow Edo-era property lines, and its temples, wooden houses and the cats of Yanaka Cemetery have made it the city's shorthand for old Tokyo. The commercial spine is Yanaka Ginza, a short shopping street you reach down the Yuyake Dandan steps, where the menchi-katsu is eaten standing up and the shutters come down by early evening. With Nezu and Sendagi it forms the district locals call Yanesen.
Yanaka and Nezu. Start at Nippori Station and walk into the streets the Yanaka neighbourhood guide covers. Yanaka survived both the 1923 earthquake and the war, so the streets still run at an older Tokyo pace. Wooden houses, cats everywhere, a shopping street where you eat as you walk. Yanaka Cemetery is one of the quietest places in the city. Nezu Shrine has a torii tunnel that beats fighting the crowds in Kyoto.
What's on near Yanaka Cemetery
Upcoming events within a ten-minute walk of Yanaka Cemetery, from the weekly Tokyo events calendar.
ASAKURA ZOO 2026, special exhibition at the Asakura Museum of Sculpture
特別展 ASAKURA ZOO 2026
Time 9:30 to 16:30, last entry 16:00, closed Mondays and Thursdays; temporary closure 5 to 12 Nov Station Nippori (JR), 5 min walk
A special exhibition of the animal sculptures of Asakura Fumio, with animal and insect motifs from his collection of art objects.
Encho Matsuri and ghost paintings at Zenshoan
全生庵 円朝祭（圓朝遺愛の幽霊画 公開）
Time See the temple page
Zenshoan, the Yanaka temple where the storyteller San'yutei Encho is buried, airs and shows his collection of ghost paintings during its Encho festival every August.
Yanaka Chrysanthemum Festival
谷中菊まつり
Chrysanthemum figures, potted chrysanthemums for sale and chrysanthemum food at Daienji, reviving the Dangozaka chrysanthemum dolls of the Edo period.
azkin, CC BY 2.0 Nobuko Tsuchiya, Ace of Hearts, at SCAI THE BATHHOUSE
土屋信子 Ace of Hearts
Station Nezu (Chiyoda Line), 6 min walk
A solo exhibition at the contemporary art gallery in a converted bathhouse.
Nakamura Fusetsu and the Shodo Museum, 90th anniversary exhibition
書道博物館開館90周年記念 中村不折と書道博物館 －不折のおたから大公開！－
Time 9:30 to 16:30, last entry 16:00, closed Mondays Station Uguisudani (JR), 5 min walk
A special exhibition on the painter and calligrapher Nakamura Fusetsu and the collection of the museum he founded, in two parts with a changeover in early October.
Smaller local events nearby
Shinnai-bushi Okamoto Miyanosuke Ichiyo Diary Performance Video Screening Performance
Sat 31 Oct · Taito Ichiyo Memorial Museum, Ryusen
A screening of a shinnai-bushi performance with readings of three letters, in the basement training room of the museum.
Free with museum admission · 11:00 and 14:00 · Map · Source: Taito City museums (Taito Arts and Culture Foundation) · 『新内節 岡本宮之助の会「一葉日記」公演動画鑑賞会』開催(10月31日)のお知らせ
Yanaka Antique Market (26th) Market
14 to 15 Nov · Enmeiin temple, Yanaka
An antique and flea market in the grounds of Enmeiin, a Yanaka temple just over the Arakawa ward line, held on a run of autumn weekends.
Free entry · Map · Source: Taito City (Koho Taito, 5 Oct 2026; organiser: Yanaka Kotto-ichi office) · 谷中骨董市（第26回）
Nearby
Around Yanaka
The Tokyo that survived, cemetery walks and all
Yanaka largely escaped both the 1923 earthquake fires and the wartime bombing, so it kept the low wooden streetscape the rest of Tokyo lost. A cemetery as a highlight? It sounds odd until you've walked this one. Cherry-lined paths, cats sunning on the gravestones, and almost no noise. Pair it with the Yanaka Ginza shopping street and you've got the best slow afternoon in the city.
Yanaka has 8 places on the Roam Tokyo map: 2 restaurants, 2 cafes, 1 shrine or temple, 1 park or garden, 1 neighbourhood and 1 bathhouse. Read the Yanaka guide.
Good to know
- What is the address of Yanaka Cemetery?
- Yanaka 7-chome, Taito-ku, Tokyo (in Japanese: 台東区谷中七丁目).
- How do I get to Yanaka Cemetery?
- The nearest station is Nippori (JR). Yanaka Cemetery is in Yanaka, Tokyo.
- How much does Yanaka Cemetery cost?
- Nothing. Yanaka Cemetery is free to visit.
- How long do you need at Yanaka Cemetery?
- Plan for 1 hour.
- When is the best time to visit Yanaka Cemetery?
- Spring mornings.
Stay near Yanaka Cemetery
Browse live availability and compare prices around Yanaka.
Median US$168 a night across 42 listings within 1.2 km for a two-night stay a month out, sampled 20 October 2026. Cheapest quarter under US$122. See the weekly index for every neighbourhood.
See hotels near Yanaka Cemetery on Booking.comPrices are for the night of Saturday 24 October. You can change the dates on Booking.com. If you book, Roam Tokyo earns a small commission from Stay22 at no extra cost to you.