From Tabata to Sugamo: Greenery and Graves at the Northern Tip of the Yamanote

The stations on the Yamanote line stations loop. (© Pixta)

A Yamanote Line train hugs the sharp Tabata ridge, tracing the fault between the homes above and the maze of tracks below. (© Gianni Simone)

The Tabata Memorial Museum of Writers and Artists celebrates the creatives who lived in the area in the early twentieth century. (© Gianni Simone)

Tabata Hachiman Shrine’s layered layout unfolds like a vertical pilgrimage. (© Gianni Simone)

The Akagami Niō are revered for warding off misfortune and curing illness. (© Gianni Simone)

The lively shopping street in front of Komagome Station. (© Gianni Simone)

The greengrocer in the Shimofuri shōtengai arranges his goods with typically Japanese care. (© Gianni Simone)

Somei Cemetery’s overgrown lanes sit next to the Sugamo wholesale vegetable market (in the background). (© Gianni Simone)