When persimmon leaves and the tips of maples take on color, and chilly air rattles windows, composer Yoshinao Nakada's haunting song "Chiisai Aki Mitsuketa" ("A Bit of Autumn Found") floats through my mind. Having just learned that the song's lyricist, talented poet Hachiro Sato (1903-74), rests in Zoshigaya Reien (cemetery), it seems the perfect season to pay respects, and explore the grounds of one of Tokyo's largest boneyards.
From the Toden Arakawa streetcar line stop, Toden-Zoshigaya, the cemetery entrance is a five-minute walk. October's breezes graze the upper branches of large zelkova trees that shade the grounds, and golden sunlight warms the stones as I make my way toward the cemetery's administration office.
Outside the office, I pick up maps that include "addresses" of gravesites where people of note are buried. I also avail myself of a quick spray of bug repellant offered up free of charge. While I imagine October to be relatively mosquito-free, no one wants dengue fever bringing them back to a cemetery under involuntary circumstances.