Place In Memoriam - Aoyama Cemetary

青山霊園外人墓地にある、ウィリスの母アンナのお墓の話題です。

ウィリスの記念碑もここにあります。

Willis' mother, Anna Lavina Whitney sleeps in Aoyama Cemetery in Minato Ward, Tokyo. The grave located on the section N1-i1 (北1種イ1側), facing the center road.

It is pity that the sepulchral inscription of the front side has been almost obliterated. Even in the 1970s, it was hard to read. TEZUKA Tatsumaro wrote “since the inscription on the grave has been worn away in these last few years” in 1971 [*].

* 手塚竜麿「ウイリス・ホイットニーと赤坂病院」～ 『日本近代化の先駆者たち』吾妻書房 1975, p.92.

According to Shibusawa [p.98], it reads:

骸化土霊帰天

ホイト子ー氏親友　勝安芳拝誌

 Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: 

and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it. 

[Ecclesiastes 12:7]

presented by KATSU Yasuyoshi, friend of Mrs Whitney.

As for the inscription on the gravestone, a web page of the Library of Hitotsubashi University gives us helpful information （click here）. The above image was made by me, based on their information, and what I actually saw. The yellow rectangle shows the space which could decipher anything no more. I can add about Willis' son, Isaac Braithwaite Whitney. He was born on 19 Mar. 1889 in Tokyo, and died on 21 Feb. 1890, followed his twin brother John Norton, who died on 26 Nov. 1889. Poor brothers. 

On the other side, it reads

  

義人必由信而得生

録聖書之語

 The just shall live by his faith. 

[Habakkuk 2:4]

from the Bible 

Anna was born in 1834, died 17th April 1883 in Tokyo, aged 49. It was said that she was the second foreigner who buried in Aoyama Cemetary (the first one was a French soldier, Albert Charles Du Bousquet, died in 1882)*. KATSU Yasuyoshi was another name of Count KATSU Kaishū (1823-1899), a Japanese notable statesman and the guardian of the Whitney family.

 * A guide book of Aoyama Cemetary published by the Bureau of Construction, Tokyo Metropolitan Government, says that a German Karl Anton Bruck カール・アントン・ブリュック (1839-1880) was the first buried non-Japanese.

Willis was NOT buried here, as some people misunderstood. His widow set up his memorial on the bottom of his mother's grave, when she revisited Japan in 1925  [Reminiscences, pp.168-69].

In Loving Memory of

WILLIS NORTON WHITNEY M.D.

Oct. 26 1918

who rests at Banbury, England

Well done good and faithful servant

The last phrase is from Matthew 25:21.

宜いかな、善かつ忠なる僕（マタイ25:21）

[ First Section for foreigners, N1-i1, Aoyama Cemetery ]

A: Anna Lavina Whitney (1834-1883)

B: Memorial of Dr W. N. Whitney

C: George Braithwaite (1855-1931) and his wife Letitia (1876-1932) 

D: Alice Louisa Neitz (1852-1892), wife of Rev. F. C. Neitz

E: Frederick C. Krecker  (1843-1883)

George Braithwaite was brother-in-law and a great supporter of Willis. I shall write about him and his wife later on.  

Rev. F. C. Neitz and Dr Krecker was missionaries of Evangelical Church of North America. Dr Krecker, a patient of Dr Willis, died of typhoid fever just nine days later of Mrs Whitney's.

All photos taken by Yagitani, November 2014.

* Aoyama Cemetary Guide  from Japan Talk site 

Last updated 14 March 2015