Yanaka, Tokyo: The Old Town That Escaped the War and the Earthquake
Two disasters, sixty years apart, erased almost everything that Tokyo looked like before the modern era. The Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923 killed roughly 140,000 people and destroyed most of the low-lying eastern city. The Allied firebombing of March 1945 incinerated approximately 16 square miles of the capital in a single night. Between them, they wiped out the wooden residential streets, small temples, and craft workshops that had made up Tokyo's shitamachi (downtown) neighborhoods for three centuries. Yanaka is one of the very few pockets of the city that came through both intact.
Why Yanaka Survived
Yanaka sits on slightly elevated ground above the Ueno basin, which spared it from the fires that tore through the low-lying eastern wards after the 1923 earthquake. In 1945, the firebombing runs concentrated on industrial and dockside targets rather than the residential hillside where Yanaka sits. Neither disaster reached it, and the neighborhood's narrow lanes, wooden machiya houses, and more than 70 temples are largely the same ones that stood a century ago -- not the rebuilt, reconstructed version found almost everywhere else in central Tokyo.
Yanaka Ginza: The Shopping Street
The neighborhood's best-known stretch is Yanaka Ginza, a shitamachi shopping street lined with artisan shops selling pottery, tea, and traditional sweets alongside bakeries and cat-themed souvenir stores. Yanaka has long had a reputation as a cat town, and the street leans into it: seven wooden cat statues, carved by students from the Tokyo University of the Arts, are scattered around the area, and finding all seven is said to bring good luck (some are placed on rooftops, which makes the full set genuinely hard to spot in one visit).
At the entrance to the street is Yuyake Dandan, a staircase whose name translates to roughly "sunset steps" -- a popular spot to look down over the shopping street, especially as the light turns gold in the late afternoon.
Getting there: Nippori Station (JR Yamanote Line) is about a 5-minute walk from Yanaka Ginza; Sendagi Station (Tokyo Metro Chiyoda Line) is a similarly short walk from the other end.
Yanaka Cemetery: History Under the Cherry Blossoms
Yanaka Cemetery was established in 1872 on land that had belonged to the adjacent Tenno-ji Temple, created as a public cemetery during the Meiji-era policy separating Buddhism and Shinto institutions. It covers more than 10 hectares and holds an estimated 7,000 graves, including that of Tokugawa Yoshinobu, the last shogun of Japan, along with numerous Meiji-era painters, authors, and politicians. Its name officially changed from Yanaka Bochi ("graveyard") to Yanaka Reien ("spirit park") in 1935.
In April, the cemetery's central path -- known as Sakura-dori, or Cherry Blossom Avenue -- turns into a tunnel of pink and white blossoms, and it draws a noticeably quieter crowd than Tokyo's more famous hanami spots like Ueno Park, just to the south.
What Makes Yanaka Different
Unlike neighborhoods that were rebuilt after 1945 to look historic, Yanaka's temples, narrow stone-paved lanes, and wooden houses are simply old -- some of the temples have stood on the same spot for well over a century without needing to be reconstructed. That authenticity is Yanaka's whole appeal: there's no single must-see landmark to rush to, just a neighborhood built at a pre-war scale that rewards slow walking between the shopping street, the cemetery, and the temple lanes connecting them.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why did Yanaka survive when most of old Tokyo didn't?
It sits on slightly elevated ground above the Ueno basin, which kept it out of the fires that spread through the low-lying eastern wards after the 1923 Great Kanto Earthquake. In 1945, Allied firebombing runs concentrated on industrial and dockside targets rather than Yanaka's residential hillside, so the neighborhood escaped both disasters.
What is Yuyake Dandan?
A staircase at the entrance to the Yanaka Ginza shopping street; the name translates to roughly "sunset steps," and it's a popular spot to look out over the street, especially in the late-afternoon light.
How many cat statues are on Yanaka Ginza, and where are they?
Seven wooden cat statues, carved by Tokyo University of the Arts students, are scattered around the shopping street. Some are placed on rooftops, making it genuinely difficult to spot the full set in a single visit.
Who is buried in Yanaka Cemetery?
Tokugawa Yoshinobu, the last shogun of Japan, along with numerous Meiji-era painters, authors, and politicians. The cemetery was established in 1872 and holds an estimated 7,000 graves across more than 10 hectares.
How do I get to Yanaka?
Nippori Station on the JR Yamanote Line is about a 5-minute walk from Yanaka Ginza. Sendagi Station on the Tokyo Metro Chiyoda Line is a similarly short walk from the opposite end of the neighborhood.
Final Thoughts
Most "old Tokyo" neighborhoods are reconstructions -- careful, often beautiful, but rebuilt after 1945 to evoke a past that was physically destroyed. Yanaka doesn't have to evoke anything. Its temples, lanes, and the cemetery under Cherry Blossom Avenue are simply what was already there, having quietly avoided the two events that erased the rest of the city's pre-modern face.