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Ueno Park

Japan's First Park

Ueno Park is the first park in Japan with more than 50 different types of cherry trees existing in the park. Every year during the cherry blossom season, the park is jam-packed with tourists. Ueno Park is also home to the Ueno Zoo, Ueno Toshogu Shrine, museums, art galleries, and other attractions.

Ueno Park 上野公園, which started in 1873, is considered to be the first park in Japan and was originally owned by the Japanese Imperial Family and was given to Tokyo city in 1924, hence the name Ueno Imperial Gift Park 上野恩賜公園.

Ueno Park has a large area and is especially famous for its cherry blossoms. Since the beginning of the park, cherry trees have been planted in the park, and now there are more than 50 different kinds of cherry trees in the park. Every year from March to April, when the cherry blossoms are in full bloom, Ueno Park is jammed with visitors. The Shinobazu Pond 不忍池 on one side of the park has open water, and in summer the pond is filled with lotus leaves, attracting many wild water birds that come to settle there.

Famous Cherry Blossom Attraction in Tokyo

There are many shrines and temples and bronze monuments in Ueno Park, which have witnessed the changes and development of the park. The Bronze Statue of Saigo Takamori 西鄕隆盛 at the south entrance is one of the icons of Ueno Park, which has been erected during the late 19th century, more than 100 years ago.

Ueno Toshogu Shrine 上野東照宮 is Tokugawa Iemitsu’s family shrine, thus its political status speaks for itself. Its Karamon Gate 唐門 and halls are all Edo period originals and are rarely seen today. The Kiyomizu Kannondo Hall was built more than two hundred years before Ueno Park, with appearance modeled after Kyoto Kiyomizudera Temple, and the statue of the thousand-armed Kannon inside the hall was also moved here from Kiyomizudera Temple. Also, there are the Hanazono Inari Jinja Shrine, Gojoten Jinja Shrine and Bentendo Shrine in Ueno Park, which are worshipped by local people.

Seagulls by the Pond

Manywhere Trivia:
The first modern subway system in Japan, the subway between Asakusa and Ueno, opened on December 30, 1927, in the 16th year of the Taisho era (1927).

The Ueno Park area is also the cultural nexus of Tokyo, with museums and galleries everywhere, such as Tokyo National Museum, Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum, the National Museum of Western Art, and the National Museum of Nature and Science are not to be missed by students who love history and art. The Ueno Zoo, the most famous zoo in Japan, is home to the pandas which are gifts from China as a link of friendship between the two countries.

Tokyo National Museum

Largest Collection of National Treasures

The Tokyo National Museum is the oldest museum and is among the four national museums in Japan. The Tokyo National Museum has a collection of more than 110,000 precious artifacts from within Japan, as well as from various countries such as China, Korea, India, and Egypt.