These are the graves of expatriates from the Meiji era, men and women who promoted Western ideas and practices in Japan-doctors, educators, missionaries, and artists.
Famous non-Japanese buried there include the British minister plenipotentiary Hugh Fraser who died in the post in 1894, Captain Francis Brinkley, Guido Verbeck, Henry Spencer Palmer, Edoardo Chiossone, Joseph Heco, Edwin Dun, Mary True, and several others.