Dutch cemetery, Inasa, Nagasaki, c 1865
Odds of dying before one’s return to Dutch shores were high. For people who were in Japan temporarily, cemeteries must therefore have had heightened significance. The oldest surviving grave in this cemetery belongs to Hendrik Duurkoop (1736-1778), director of the Dutch East India Company’s trading post on Dejima. Supposedly, his is the grave front and centre. The Dutch were buried in a separate section of Inasa cemetery. It was surrounded by a wall. In 1918 a gate was erected, with a sign identifying it as the Holland Cemetery
