Nagasaki · JP

Tomb of Sawamura Sōnojō

On a steep hillside of Chikugomachi, a short climb from Nagasaki Station, the cemetery of Honrenji temple (本蓮寺) holds the grave of Sawamura Sōnojō, a young samurai from Tosa who threw in his lot with Sakamoto Ryōma's maritime band, the Kaiōtai. It is a small, quietly moving landmark on Nagasaki's Bakumatsu trail, less a grand monument than a stone set among the tombs, reached by the long, narrow, vertiginous steps that make the city's hillside cemeteries so distinctive. The site rewards anyone drawn to the closing years of the samurai era or following Ryōma's story through Kyushu. The grave stands where the temple grounds overlook the harbour and the lights of Nagasaki, and the same sweeping view was once admired by the very men whose fate this stone records.