Abstract
This article traces the development of public cemeteries in Meiji period Tokyo and examines how they were dealt with in the Tokyo SHIKUKAISEI IINKAI (Urban Improvement Committee) Plan. First, analysis of the development process of public cemeteries in Meiji-period Tokyo through official notices (futatsu) and regulations (hourei). Second, spatial changes in public cemeteries over three decades --ranging from the late Edo Period to the early Meiji period before the release of the SHIKUKAISEI IINKAI Plan and the late Meiji period after the completion of improvement projects. The article reaches two conclusions:
1. There were no "public cemeteries" in Edo period, but grew from the Shinto funeral sites established in the first half of the Meiji period and graveyards based on the Cemetery Regulations (Bochi Toriatsukai Kisoku) to alter the urban space on the fringes of Tokyo.
2. While the SHIKUKAISEI IINKAI Plan added no new public cemeteries, it rather re-appropriated and enlarged existing ones.
