Aoyama Reien

2000
Gallery Installation
Limited Edition Fine Art Prints

Aoyama Cemetery (青 山 霊 園 , Aoyama reien) is a cemetery in Aoyama, Mianto, Tokyo, Japan.

Aoyama was originally a burial site exclusively for the Japanese nobility at the beginning of the Meiji Period, its name derived from the Aoyama family of the Gujo clan. By 1874 it had been transformed into Japan’s first public cemetery. I visited Japan for the first time in November 2000. I was in Tokyo with two photography exhibitions for ‘Peaceful Warriors’. A B&W gallery in Shimokitazawa and a colour gallery in Uehara, about three miles from one another, I would walk between both locations, to familiarise myself with each road and shop that could reveal more to me of metropolitan life. Refined order in creative shapes & forms always delighted me. The Grateful Dead cafe anyone? It was lovely to get lost in this endless maze.

Domo Arigato Japan. ど う も あ り が と う