The Yanaka sector of Taito is one of the few Tokyo neighborhoods in which the old Shitamachi atmosphere can still be felt.

The cemetery is famous for its beautiful cherry blossoms in April that completely cover its paths, and for that reason that its central street is often called Cherry-blossom Avenue.

The cemetery has its own police station and a small walled enclosure dedicated to the Tokugawa clan, family of the 15 Tokugawa shōguns of Japan, which however is closed to the public and must be peeked at through double barred gates.

The cemetery used to be part of a Buddhist temple called Tennō-ji (天王寺), and its central street used to be the road (sandō) approaching it.

In 1872, Meiji authorities confiscated a portion of Tennō-ji and declared it a public Tokyo cemetery, the largest in the country at the time.