Koizumi Yakumo Commemorative Park

Author: Richard Perkins
Photos/Videos Taken: 2021/04/21
Address: 1-7 Okubo, Shinjuku-ku,
Tokyo,【169-0072】

Koizumi Yakumo was an Irish man who came to Japan at age 40. Living in the Meiji era (1868-1912), he moved around Japan living in several prefectures while writing books about his experiences in Japan and his thoughts on the country. The books Koizumi Yakumo wrote about Japan still greatly impact others researching and studying Japan. Koizumi Yakumo passed away in Japan, in the Shinjuku ward of Tokyo in an area known as Okubo.

In the area where Koizumi Yakumo passed away a park known as the "Koizumi Yakumo Commemorative Park" has been built to commemorate his life, and to commemorate the Shinjuku ward and the city of Lefkada in Greece becoming sister cities.

As Koizumi Yakumo was born in Greece, everything in this park has been built as if it were Greek architecture. Everything from Greek-style columns to a building that looks as if it may be from the Greek Middle Ages. Even though this park is in Shinjuku in the heart of Tokyo, you really do feel as if you’ve just landed in Greece.

Koizumi Yakumo had unsettling feelings about the rapid modernization of Japan. Those feelings may have been what led him to move here. Considering the average age at which most people pass away nowadays, Koizumi Yakumo was quite young when he left this world. There’s no doubt that he still would have liked to protect more of the traditional side of Japan that he loved. While looking at the statue of Koizumi Yakumo at this park, many may feel as if they’d like to know what he would think about Japan nowadays.

NOTE
This is a park in which (for whatever reason) many homeless people converge. Although this is one place that fans of Koizumi Yakumo will love, some may find it difficult to enter. Nothing will happen to those who enter the park, but it is in an area of Tokyo that is said to be one of the unsafer parts of the city. Please be careful when coming and visiting this particular park.