Going Alone

Here’s the edge of what appears to be an entire graveyard forgotten and swallowed by the forest. It’s not uncommon to discover solitary graves in the woods near abandoned homes where family members interred their loved ones in the days before modern roads and automobiles. Most Japanese prefer to keep the cremated remains of their ancestors at a family Buddhist temple, though I rather like the idea of a family plot in a patch of nature near the farm. Welcome to the Abandoned J

This small village is located in the mountains behind Yui, Japan. My friend’s mother grew up in this tiny village. My friend asked her mother about the graves and was told that the villagers here would sometimes hide money and other valuables in fake graves. She said the fake graves could be identified by special writing on the stone that had meaning only to those who placed them. It’s now likely impossible to tell as real gravestone from a fake grave hiding family treasure.