Qualla: Musashi Imperial Graveyard: Where Tokyo's Emperors Rest Beneath the Trees

Musashi Imperial Graveyard: Where Tokyo's Emperors Rest Beneath the Trees: Introduction

Mon, 16 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Naokijp, CC BY-SA 4.0. On the evening of February 7, 1927, a procession four miles long wound through the winter darkness of Tokyo. Twenty thousand mourners followed a herd of sacred bulls and an ox-drawn cart bearing the coffin of Emperor Taisho, who had died on Christmas Day the previous year. Their destination was a newly prepared site in the forests of Hachioji, in western Tokyo -- a place that would become the Musashi Imperial Graveyard. Emperor Taisho was the first Japanese emperor ever buried in Tokyo, breaking a tradition that had placed monarchs in the soil of Kyoto for centuries. His father, Emperor Meiji, though he had lived and died in Tokyo, was interred on the outskirts of Kyoto near his imperial forebears. Taisho, who had lived his entire life in or near the capital, became the first true Tokyo Emperor in death as well as in life.

Image: Naokijp | CC BY-SA 4.0

Musashi Imperial Graveyard: Where Tokyo's Emperors Rest Beneath the Trees: The First Tokyo Emperor

Mon, 16 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Staka, CC BY 3.0. Emperor Taisho's decision to be buried in Tokyo -- or rather, the decision made on his behalf -- carried symbolic weight far beyond the choice of a burial plot. For generations, the imperial house had maintained its connection to Kyoto through the placement of tombs, even after t...

Image: Staka | CC BY 3.0

Musashi Imperial Graveyard: Where Tokyo's Emperors Rest Beneath the Trees: A Forest of Zelkova and Cryptomeria

Mon, 16 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit 日本国政府, Public domain. The graveyard occupies a designed landscape that blurs the line between garden and forest. The approach from the Koshu Kaido, one of the ancient highways that radiated from Edo, is lined with zelkova trees. The mausolea themselves stand within groves of cryptomeria, the Japanese ...

Image: 日本国政府 | Public domain

Musashi Imperial Graveyard: Where Tokyo's Emperors Rest Beneath the Trees: Two Emperors, Two Empresses

Mon, 16 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Dick Thomas Johnson, CC BY 2.0. Four members of the imperial family rest at Musashi. Emperor Taisho was interred first, following his death on December 25, 1926. His wife, Empress Teimei, joined him in 1951. Their son, Emperor Showa -- known to much of the world as Hirohito -- died on January 7, 1989, after a r...

Image: Dick Thomas Johnson | CC BY 2.0

Musashi Imperial Graveyard: Where Tokyo's Emperors Rest Beneath the Trees: A Break with Three Centuries of Tradition

Mon, 16 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit 青海堂, Public domain. In 2012 and 2013, the Imperial Household Agency confirmed that Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko planned to break with tradition in a different way. Rather than the in-ground burial that had been the norm for Japanese monarchs for some 350 years, they chose cremation. Their ash...

Image: 青海堂 | Public domain