The Tomb of Miura Anjin: An English Sailor's Memorial Above Yokosuka
On a wooded ridge above the port city of Yokosuka, two weathered stone pagodas stand side by side. One is carved from tuff, the other from andesite. They mark the memorial of an Englishman who entered Japanese history under a Japanese name: Miura Anjin. To the wider world he was William Adams, the navigator from Kent who reached Japan in 1600 as a half-starved survivor of a Dutch trading voyage, won the confidence of Tokugawa Ieyasu, and lived out his days as a samurai with lands in this very village.
The monuments were designated a National Historic Site on 7 March 1923, under the category of tombs and monuments. They are not the place of Adams's actual burial; he died at Hirado, on the far western edge of Kyushu. The pagodas at Hemi were raised, according to local tradition, in accordance with his own wish to be remembered on high ground looking towards Edo.
From Gillingham to Bungo Bay
Adams was born in 1564 in Gillingham, Kent, and apprenticed to a shipwright from the age of twelve. By his thirties he was an experienced master mariner, and in 1598 he signed on as pilot major for a Dutch trading fleet bound for the East Indies. Of the five ships that sailed from Rotterdam, only one staggered across the Pacific. The Liefde reached the Japanese coast at Sashiu in present-day Usuki, Oita Prefecture, in April 1600, carrying twenty-four sick and exhausted survivors of a voyage that had lasted nearly two years.
Adams was brought to Osaka and questioned by Tokugawa Ieyasu, then the most powerful daimyo in the country and a few months away from the campaign that would culminate at Sekigahara. The two men reportedly took to each other at once. Ieyasu pressed the Englishman closely on European politics, geography and shipbuilding, and decided not to send him home.
Becoming Miura Anjin
In time Adams became one of Ieyasu's most trusted foreign advisers. He oversaw the construction of two Western-rigged sailing vessels at Ito on the Izu coast, the first ocean-going ships built in Japan to European designs. He advised on trade with Portuguese, Spanish, Dutch and English ships, and his counsel helped open the way for the English East India Company's short-lived factory at Hirado.
For his services he received the surname Miura, after the peninsula on which his fief lay, and the personal name Anjin, the Japanese word for a ship's pilot. Yokosuka City's cultural-property records put his stipend at 220 koku of rice; the older commemorative monument at the site gives the figure as 250. Either way, the land granted to him centred on Hemi village, in the hills now occupied by Tsukayama Park. He also kept a residence in Edo, in the Nihonbashi district later known as Anjincho.
He married the daughter of a man named Magome Kageyu, headman of Otenmacho in Edo, and they had two children, a son Joseph and a daughter Susanna. Whether he formally severed ties with an English wife left behind in Kent has long been debated; he certainly continued to send money home through the East India Company.
The Pagodas and What They Mean
Adams died at Hirado on 16 May 1620, in the house of a merchant named Kida Yajirouemon. He was fifty-five. After Ieyasu's death in 1616 he had lost much of his standing at court, and the last years of his life were spent on private trading voyages to Southeast Asia.
The two stone pagodas at Hemi are hokyointo, a type of Buddhist memorial pagoda common in the Edo period. The right-hand pagoda, of tuff, commemorates Adams himself; the left, of andesite, his wife. Local tradition holds that they were erected after his death according to his own instructions, on a ridge from which the eye reaches towards Edo, the city he had served for two decades. The actual remains are believed to lie at Hirado.
An English-style stone marker was added nearby in 1905, recording his life in both languages. The site has been part of the neighbourhood's identity for so long that the closest railway station now carries the name Anjinzuka, "the mound of the pilot."
Climbing to the Site
The pagodas stand inside Tsukayama Park, a quiet hillside park whose highest point reaches 133 metres above sea level. From the lookout decks called Miharashidai and Minato-no-mieru-oka, the view takes in Yokosuka Harbour, the wooded island of Sarushima and, on clear days, the hills of the Boso Peninsula across Tokyo Bay. The park is on the official list of fifty scenic spots of Kanagawa Prefecture.
The walk up from Keikyu Anjinzuka Station takes about twenty minutes, the last stretch on a steep wooded path. From Keikyu Hemi Station, the climb is closer to twenty-five minutes. There is no car park within the grounds, and the approach is best made on foot.
Each spring, between late March and early April, cherry trees line the paths and the park becomes one of the better-known hanami spots in the Yokosuka area. The annual Miura Anjin Festival, held in early April, brings British and Japanese officials together at the pagodas for a ceremony of remembrance.
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Q&A
- Is William Adams actually buried here?
- No. He died at Hirado in present-day Nagasaki Prefecture, and his remains are believed to lie there. The two pagodas at Hemi are memorial pagodas, raised according to local tradition in accordance with his wish to be remembered on high ground overlooking the road to Edo.
- Why is the site spelled "Miura Anjin" in some places and "Miura Anshin" in others?
- The character 按 (an, "to press"), as in "to press a hand to the wheel," is the historically correct character for Anjin, meaning "pilot." The national designation, however, uses the variant 安 (an, "peace"), and the official name as a Historic Site is therefore 三浦安針墓. Local signs and the city's own materials more often use 按.
- Is there a connection with the novel and television series Shogun?
- Yes. James Clavell's 1975 novel and the screen adaptations are loosely based on Adams's life. The main character John Blackthorne is a fictional version of Adams, and his patron Toranaga is modelled on Tokugawa Ieyasu.
- When is the best time to visit?
- Late March to early April, when the cherry trees bloom along the park paths and the Miura Anjin Festival is held. Crisp winter days also reward the climb with clearer views of Tokyo Bay from the lookouts. Sturdy shoes are advisable; the final approach is steep.
- Are there related sites worth combining with the visit?
- Joudo-ji, a temple in Hemi village, preserves items connected to Adams. Verny Park near central Yokosuka has a small monument commemorating the same history, and the Mikasa Park area offers a different angle on the city's long maritime story.
Basic Information
| Name | Miura Anjin no Haka (Tomb of Miura Anjin) |
|---|---|
| Designation | National Historic Site (category: tombs and monuments) |
| Date of Designation | 7 March 1923 (Taisho 12) |
| Location | Nishi-Hemi, Yokosuka City, Kanagawa Prefecture (within Kanagawa Prefectural Tsukayama Park) |
| Form | Two stone hokyointo pagodas (Adams: tuff; wife: andesite) |
| Access | About 20 minutes on foot from Keikyu Anjinzuka Station; about 25 minutes from Keikyu Hemi Station |
| Hours | Tsukayama Park is open at all times; no admission fee |
| Parking | No car park on site; the park asks visitors to use public transport |
| Annual Event | Miura Anjin Festival (Miura Anjinsai Kanokai), held in early April with cherry blossoms |
References
- National Designated Cultural Properties Database (Agency for Cultural Affairs) - Miura Anjin no Haka
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/bsys/maindetails/401/774
- Yokosuka City - Tomb of Miura Anjin (Cultural Properties page)
- https://www.city.yokosuka.kanagawa.jp/8120/bunkazai/kuni09.html
- Yokosuka City Tourism Information - Tsukayama Park
- https://www.cocoyoko.net/spot/tukayama-park.html
- Yokosuka City Tourism Information - Anjinzuka
- https://www.cocoyoko.net/spot/anzinduka.html
- Kanagawa Prefectural Tsukayama Park (Official)
- https://www.kanagawa-park.or.jp/tsukayama/
Last verified: 2026.05.27