Ueno Park

Ueno Park (上野公園, Ueno Kōen) is a large public park in the Ueno area of Taitō, Tokyo, Japan. It was created in 1873 using land that once belonged to the temple of Kan'ei-ji. Ueno Park was one of Japan's first public parks and was built after parks in Western countries during the early Meiji period.

The park is special because it has many big museums and beautiful cherry blossom trees that people love to see in the spring. During this time, families and friends gather under the blossoms for a celebration called hanami. Today, many people visit Ueno Park every year, making it a favorite place in Japan.

History

Ueno Park is on land that once belonged to Kan'ei-ji, a temple started in 1625 near Edo Castle. Many of the temple's buildings were destroyed in a battle in 1868.

The city of Tokyo decided to make this area a park. Ueno Park opened in 1873 and was one of Japan's first public parks. It was given to the city in 1924 for a royal wedding and has been called Ueno Imperial Gift Park since then.

Natural features

Ueno Park has about 8,800 trees, such as Ginkgo biloba, Cinnamomum camphora, Zelkova serrata, Formosan cherry, Somei-Yoshino cherry, and Japanese cherry. There are also 24,800 m² of shrubs. Shinobazu Pond is a small lake covering 16 hectares (40 acres). It has many lotus plants and marsh areas, which are good places for birds to rest in winter. You can see birds there, like the tufted duck, Eurasian wigeon, northern pintail, common pochard, little grebe, great egret, and great cormorant.

In the middle of the pond is a small island with a shrine for Benzaiten, the goddess of fortune. Long ago, the area around the pond had special teahouses. After a big war, the pond was emptied out to grow food. There were plans to build a baseball stadium or a big parking lot, but the pond was brought back in 1949. Some water was lost in 1968 while building a new subway line.

The park has around 800 cherry trees. If you count the trees near the Ueno Tōshō-gū shrine and other nearby places, there are about twelve hundred in total. The famous poet Matsuo Bashō was inspired by the cherry blossoms.

Cultural facilities

Ueno Park has many special places where people can learn about art, history, and science. The words for "museum" and "art" in Japanese were created during the Meiji period after people from Japan visited places like North America and Europe.

Important museums in the park include the Tokyo National Museum, which opened in 1872, and the National Museum of Nature and Science, which opened the same year. The National Museum of Western Art opened in 1959 and has a special building designed by the famous architect Le Corbusier. Other museums in the park are the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum from 1926 and the Shitamachi Museum from 1980, which shows the culture of the "Low City."

The park also has places for music and learning, such as the Tokyo School of Fine Arts and the Tokyo School of Music. There is also a concert hall called the Sōgakudō Concert Hall and a large performance venue named the Tokyo Bunka Kaikan for opera and ballet.

Other landmarks

Tokugawa Ieyasu is honored at Ueno Tōshō-gū, a shrine that dates back to 1651.

Nearby, there is a special stone memorial with a flame that never goes out. It remembers the people who were hurt by the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, at the end of World War II. This flame was first lit in Hiroshima and later joined with one from Nagasaki. In 1989, people in Tokyo raised money to place this flame at the Tosho-gu shrine in Ueno Park. The memorial reminds us to work for peace.

Other interesting spots include Gojōten Jinja, dedicated to the scholar Sugawara no Michizane, and Hanazono Inari Jinja, which has cute red-bibbed fox statues. The park also has an old burial mound and was once home to Japan’s first zoo, first tram, and first May Day celebrations. Today, you can enjoy a baseball field named after the poet Masaoka Shiki.

Education

Taito City Board of Education runs public elementary and junior high schools.

Some parts of Ueno Park go to Shinobugaoka Elementary School, and others go to Negishi Elementary School. Parts of the park go to Ueno Junior High School, and some go to Shinobugaoka Junior High School.

Squatting

Many homeless people live in Ueno Park. They set up small camps with cardboard and blue tarps. These camps have little communities. Living this way is against the law in Japan, but because homelessness is common in Tokyo and other cities, these camps are usually accepted. Sometimes the police break down the camps, but the people often return.

Access

Ueno Park can be reached from several train stations. From the east, you can use Ueno Station, which connects to many train lines. From the southeast, you can visit Shinobazu Pond using Keisei Ueno Station, Okachimachi Station, Ueno-hirokoji Station, Ueno-okachimachi Station, or Naka-okachimachi Station. If you are coming from the southwest, Yushima Station is nearby. For visits to Shinobazu Pond and Ueno Zoo from the northwest, Nezu Station is a good choice. Finally, from the north, near the Tokyo National Museum, you can use Uguisudani Station.

Gallery of main attractions

Ueno Park has many important places to see. You can visit the Tokyo National Museum, the National Museum of Western Art, and the National Museum of Nature and Science. There are also special museums like the Shitamachi Museum and the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum.

Other interesting spots include the Tokyo Bunka Kaikan, the Sōgakudō Concert Hall, and the International Library of Children's Literature. You can see beautiful buildings such as the Pagoda of Kan'ei-ji and the Ueno Tōshō-gū. There are also statues, like the one of Saigō Takamori with his dog, and the Ueno Zoo is a fun place to visit.