Just a 15-minute walk from Kamakura Station, in the cemetery of the Buddhist temple Anyo-in (安養院), lies the grave of Akira Kurosawa (1910-1998), the most internationally renowned Japanese filmmaker.
It seems the local community prefers to keep the site low-profile, so it doesn’t turn into a tourist attraction – there is no sign informing passersby that this is the resting place of the director of Seven Samurai, Ran, and many other legendary films. Nevertheless, film enthusiasts and Kurosawa fans know where to find it and visit to pay their respects. As we did. Others may stumble upon it by chance on Google Maps while searching for other destinations in historic Kamakura.
At the entrance to the cemetery, a sign written only in Japanese prohibits access to tourists and passersby- something that prompted us to be as discreet as possible. We approached a woman tending a grave and asked if we might visit Kurosawa’s grave without causing disturbance. Kindly, she offered to take us there herself.
The simple tomb bears just one engraved inscription: Kurosawa Family. Among the other family members buried there is Kurosawa’s wife, actress Yoko Yaguchi, who passed away thirteen years before him, in 1985.
photos: Junko Nagata ©Japanbyweb.com
March 2025
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Kamakura is also home to the grave of another great Japanese director: Yasujiro Ozu