• DOI:10.18874/JJRS.19.2-3.1992.271-297
• Corpus ID: 74872306

Excavating Edo’s cemeteries: Graves as indicators of status and class

@article{Tanigawa1992ExcavatingEC,
  title={Excavating Edo’s cemeteries: Graves as indicators of status and class},
  author={Akio Tanigawa},
  journal={Japanese Journal of Religious Studies},
  year={1992},
  volume={19}
}

• Akio Tanigawa
• Published 1 May 1992
• History
• Japanese Journal of Religious Studies

A large quantity of human bones were discovered on a construction site in Yokodera-cho, Shinjuku-ku about seven years ago. In the course of the ensuing excavation, in which I was a participant, it was discovered that during the Edo period this site was the location of a temple called Hosen-ji g7%3, and the bones unearthed were those that had been buried in the temple graveyard. As we dug further, a large ceramic jar burial (kamka~z) containing human bones was discovered at a depth of about 1-2 meters below the surface. Similar jars containing human bones were concentrated in a relatively small area, and in a period of nine days we uncovered a total of fifty-two such jars. I was deeply impressed by the rich variety of burial facilities in this graveyard. Some graves consisted of stone chambers, while others were jar burials covered with charcoal, jar burials with stone lids, cinerary urns, and so forth. At the time I had no idea what this variety of burial customs could mean. Further analysis has convinced me that the differences in burial customs and graves indicate a major turning point in the eighteenth century in the development of modern Japanese society, with the ie becoming the central structuring principle. There is very little data available from the archaeological study of Edo burial customs and graves, perhaps because the field of Edo archaeology itself is so young. T h e oldest is an eleven-year study, started in 1954, by