The Phantom Train Station in Ueno

All aboard for a tour of the Former Hakubutsukan-Dōbutsuen Station, the phantom train station that has been captivating the imagination of artists near and far.

Opened in 1933, the Hakubutsukan-Dobotsuen Station (“Museum-Zoo Station”) was once a bustling portal to Ueno Park. But in 1997, the station was decommissioned and by 2005, the building was abandoned entirely, seemingly closing a chapter on a storied icon of the past. Behind locked doors, the station collected dust as a time capsule of yesteryear, the passenger concourse and subterranean platform preserved exactly as they had looked on the last day of service. That is, until 2018, when the forgotten station blipped back onto the radar. After the structure was selected as one of the Tokyo Metropolitan Goverment's architectural landmarks of historical merit, the Keisi Electric Railway Co. launched a project to renovate the station, in partnership with the nearby Tokyo University of the Arts.

Former Hakubutsukan-Dōbutsuen Station is seen after renovation.
Photo: Mizuho Takamura

When renovating the station, the project organizers sought to stay true to how the building looked when it was still operational. Rather than creating a shiny new space, their approach even entailed mimicking the dilapidation and timeworn charm of the aged building to showcase the atmosphere familiar its final generation of straphangers. In 2018, the station embarked on a new chapter as an exciting space for art and culture in Ueno, sporting updated entrance doors designed by Katsuhiko Hibino, one of Japan’s leading contemporary artists, who also serves as the Dean of the Faculty of Fine Arts at Tokyo University of the Arts.

A recent interior view of  Former Hakubutsukan-Dōbutsuen Station shows how the renovations preserved the original atmosphere from when the station was still in service.
Photo: Mizuho Takamura

The reincarnated  Former Hakubutsukan-Dōbutsuen Station was opened to the public in the autumn of 2018. To commemorate the unveiling of this new cultural symbol of Ueno, the entire station was outfitted with an art installation, Wandering into the Rabbit Hole, that linked the  rooms into one narrative story.

Created by sculptor Akiko Sakata and theater director Shirotama Hitsujiya, the site-specific installation centered around a newly written story, based on interviews regarding the station’s history with people who worked for the National Museum of Nature and Science, the Ueno Zoological Gardens, and the Keisei Electric Railway Co.

The art installation Wandering into the Rabbit Hole ran on weekends(Friday through Sunday)over the four-month period from Fovember 2018 to February 2019 at the newly renovated Former Hakubutsukan-Dōbutsuen Station.
Photo: Ryohei Tomita

Opening the doors to the station revealed a giant, 4-meter-tall rabbit positioned underneath the central domed ceiling. The curious sculpture and all of the other spatial design leapt from the imagination of Akiko Sakata. Construction of  Former Hakubutsukan-Dōbutsuen Station required digging under the hills of Ueno, as the station was notably a rare stop on the Keisei Line that was underground. Sakata thematically connected this historical background to rabbits, developing the installation around the creatures’ propensity for burrowing into underground warrens. The installation is a striking example of how the station's long line of accumulated stories has become a fertile source of inspiration for artists.

Photo: Ryohei Tomita

As we skirted past the giant rabbit and down the stairs, a video projection retracing the history of the Keisei Electric Railway Co. came into view on a wall overhead. The video contained a number of rare photos of the Former Hakubutsukan-Dōbutsuen Station submitted by devoted rail fans. Near a blue sofa at the bottom of the staircase sat an assortment of cups, instruments, and books reading, “Rest in peace, Tokyo.” The collection of items gave the space a lived-in feel, as if someone had been surreptitiously squatting in the abandoned station over the 21-year and eight-month span when it had been closed.

Rabbit docents share the story written by Shirotama Hitsujiya for the event. Tours of the station led by the rabbit-costumed guides were a crowd favorite.
Photo: Ryohei Tomita

The old concourse was converted into a museum exhibit about the station, where visitors were welcomed by Kento Mori, who worked as a researcher at the Tokyo National Museum. A glass display case in the center of the room held a real skeletal specimen, encircled by labeled replica specimens made by Mori on a 3D printer. In contrast to typical museum exhibits, which are typically cordoned off out of reach, the ability to touch and directly connect with the specimens on display invited reflection on the history of evolution and life.

The glasscace in the center of room contained the skull of Huan Huan, agiant panda who took his last breath at the Ueno Zoo in 1997, the same year Hakubutsukan-Dōbutsuen Station closed. Notice how the tables under each skull contain hints as to the identity of the animals, along with replica animal droppings at their feet. The exhibition provided visitors a visceral window into the circle of life.
Photo: Ryohei Tomita

Glass doors were set up at the far end of the museum as an homage to the copious graffiti that adorns the walls of the station. Visitors used markers to leave behind their own parting messages and thoughts on the event, filling every inch of the glass over the three-day span each weekend. The jam-packed writing was a visual testament to the love people still have for the station and the excitement with which everyone waited for the chance to go inside once more.

Glass windows set up during the exhibition were covered in messages. Some visitors drew illustrations of rabbits as well as penguins and elephants in a nod to famed works of graffiti that adorn the station's walls in an off-limits area behind the glass doors.
Photo: Harumi Kobayashi

During the 2018 exhibition, the giant rabbit was installed in the hall downstairs from the main entrance. Now that the exhibition is over, the rabbit remains in the station, but has migrated a floor below the hall, where it remains just outside of the old ticket gates. Although the area is off-limits to the public, it is still possible to sneak a glimpse of the rabbit by riding the Keisei Line from Keisei Ueno Station to Nippori Station. Watch carefully out the window as the train passes the old platform of Former Hakubutsukan-Dōbutsuen Station underground.

The giant rabbit sculpture has escaped from the main entrance hall downstairs near the old ticket gates, where it can be seen from trains passing Former Hakubutsukan-Dōbutsuen Station on the Keisei Main Line.
Photo: Mizuho Takamura

For Reminding the Future: Metal Silence 2019, UENOYES invited two artists from Spain to exhibit work inspired by historic Former Hakubutsukan-Dōbutsuen Station. Following on the success of Wandering into the Rabbit Hole, the site-specific exhibition captivated a packed crowd of visitors.

Metal Silence 2019 was exhibited in the hall below the station entrance and in the space in front of the old passenger concourse.
Photo: Kuniko Hirano

Guest artist Cristina Lucas uses multimedia ranging from photography to video, installation, drawing, and performance to explore the possibility for different readings of history and offer better explanations of the present. Lucas first received international acclaim for Pantone-500 + 2007, a two-dimensional animation of a world map that traces changes from the 5^th century BC to the present. (Now in the collection of the Pompidou Centre in Paris.)

Cristina Lucas, Unending Lightning
Photo: Kuniko Hirano

Drawing on the tragic bombing of Guernica, Lucas created an over six-hour long, three-screen video installation titled Unending Lightning, which plots all the civilian casualties resulting from aerial bombing across the world from Guernica up until the present day. Although similar in medium to Pantone-500 + 2007 as a map of tragedy, Unending Lightning ambitiously grapples with lofty themes of state power and the vastness of human history, themes that synched with  Former Hakubutsukan-Dōbutsuen Station's history and message.

A large-scale three-screen video installation was shown in the space in front of the old passenger concourse. The roar of passing trains on the tracks below the station served as an appropriate sound effect that drew listeners even further into the artist's world.

Cristina Lucas, Unending Lightning
Photo: Kuniko Hirano

The event also featured work by the Madrid-born artist Fernando Sánchez Castillo. Having spent his youth in Spain under the Franco regime, Castillo’s work turns an incisive eye on social and historical events, analyzing factors related to authority and representation and reviewing historical discourse from different angles, which he expresses through sculpture, painting, and video. At Metal Silence 2019, he presented a new work titled Tutor underneath the station dome.

This memorable, ikebana-esque installation struck a dignified impression under the station's dome, astately setting reminiscent of the Pantheon.
Photo: Kuniko Hirano

Castillo focused on the rich biodiversity of trees in Ueno Park. Bronze branches intertwined with a real bamboo stalk in a sculptural object that “survives even though it is about to break.” The living bamboo and the inorganic bronze tree symbolized the entanglement of opposing elements in a commentary on how trees, despite their longevity, are still, like humans, buffeted by societal and environmental change, life and death. The piece prompts the viewer to reflect on the myriad ways to live and ask what it means to be "healthy" or "normal".

A bronze sculpture modeled after an apple tree.
Photo: Kuniko Hirano

Ever since embarking on its new lease on life in 2018, the Former Hakubutsukan-Dōbutsuen Station has become a hub driving the creation of new culture in Ueno. Reimagined as communal space for public events and exclusive artwork inspired by the rich history of Ueno, the new Former Hakubutsukan-Dōbutsuen Station is once again well on its way to becoming one of the most exciting destinations in Ueno.

The front entrance to the present-day Former Hakubutsukan-Dōbutsuen Station.
Photo: Mizuho Takamura