By Ueno, a Global Capital of Culture
Photo by Fumitaka Miyoshi
Ueno Forest: Hiroshige UtagawaUeno, a Global Capital of Culture
Ueno Park was once the precincts of a Buddhist temple
The heights known as Mount Ueno used to be occupied by the Kaneiji temple. Founded in 1625, this Buddhist sanctuary was modeled on the great Enryakuji monastery on Mount Hiei, in the outskirts of Kyoto. It was officially named Toeizan Kaneiji: the Kanei Temple of Eastern Mount Hiei. The temple buildings are still located around the park today.
Utagawa Hiroshige, View of Toeizan in Ueno, from the series Famous Places of the Eastern Capital. National Diet Library Digital Collections
Ueno Forest: The Kan’ei-ji TempleUeno, a Global Capital of Culture
The Kaneiji Temple: Where blossom-viewing began
Ueno Park is where viewing the cherry blossoms first became part of Japanese urban culture. It all began when the high priest Tenkai, the founder of the Kaneiji, planted cherry trees from Yoshino (in present-day Nara Prefecture) on the temple precincts. By the end of the Kanei era (1624-1645), after which the temple is named, Ueno Mountain was covered in cherry trees, and the area had become a favorite place to admire the blossoms.
Ueno Park’s iconic Kaneiji Temple. Photo by Hajime Suga
Ueno Forest: Dr. BauduinUeno, a Global Capital of Culture
The birth of Japan’s first public park
Though Ueno Mountain became a battlefield during the civil war that broke out in 1868, the forest soon recovered. But then the new Meiji government decided to build a massive university hospital on the site. The Dutch physician Dr. A.F. Bauduin, who was in Japan as a university lecturer, objected. He proposed making the most of the place’s natural beauty by turning it into a park instead. Plans to build a hospital were accordingly scrapped, even though work had already begun on the foundations. And so Ueno Park, Japan’s first public park, was born.
Photo by Fumitaka Miyoshi
Ueno Forest: Past and Present VideoUeno, a Global Capital of Culture
Ueno Forest: SculptureUeno, a Global Capital of Culture
An urban oasis during the economic boom years
Ueno Park was bombed during World War II, and immediately after the war it served as an evacuation site. Then, in 1955, with the enactment of the Urban Parks Act, work began on restoring it. The streets of Ueno can be seen in the background of this photograph from 1964. That year’s Tokyo Olympics triggered a building boom in the area, according to landscape architect Michio Tase, who worked on landscaping the park.
The sculpture Green Rhythm by Takashi Shimizu, which used to be on display in Hakamagoshi Square. It has been relocated several times and can now be seen in front of Ueno Green Salon. Photo from Hajime Suga’s exhibition Ueno in the Showa Years.
Ueno Forest: TouristsUeno, a Global Capital of Culture
The blossoms return in a new era of peace and prosperity.
In this photograph from 1960, Ueno Park has regained its status as a cherry blossom wonderland. It shows foreign tourists — still a rarity back then — admiring the blossoms as their guide delivers her spiel.
Photo from Hajime Suga’s exhibition Ueno in the Showa Years
Ueno Forest: Hakamagoshi SquareUeno, a Global Capital of Culture
The order goes out not to reduce the number of trees.
The park received a major facelift in the 1970s, when Keisei Ueno Station underwent renovations. On that occasion the Japanese government imposed one condition: Do not reduce the amount of vegetation in the park. So recalls Michio Tase, who worked on the project as a member of the landscaping company Fuji Ueki.
Hakamagoshi Square today. Photo by Kuniko Hirano
Ueno Forest: National Museum of Nature and ScienceUeno, a Global Capital of Culture
Preserving Ueno Forest — by temporarily transplanting the trees elsewhere
“All the plants between the Grand Fountain and Hakamagoshi Square were transplanted one by one to the outskirts of Tokyo,” explains Mr. Tase. “Then, when the project was completed, they were transplanted back. It was a massive, five-year undertaking.” The forest around the National Museum of Nature and Science, which overlooks the plaza with the Grand Fountain, was likewise temporarily relocated during the park’s refurbishment in the 1970s.
Photo by Fumitaka Miyoshi
Ueno Forest: Sogakudo of the Former Tokyo Music SchoolUeno, a Global Capital of Culture
The forest fills the open space around each facility
Ueno Park today offers a full range of amenities catering to the needs of Tokyo’s inhabitants, including many art galleries and museums, a university, and even a zoo. Each of these facilities is surrounded by plenty of open space, which Ueno Forest fills with living greenery.
Photo by Fumitaka Miyoshi
Ueno Forest: Fountain SquareUeno, a Global Capital of Culture
The ideal townscape
The park’s layout is still based on the Meiji-period design inspired by European models. What makes it so alluring, asserts landscape architect Michio Tase, is its “expansiveness.” Open spaces lush with trees and plants appear in succession — a layout epitomizing the ideal townscape that modern Japan has so often sought to realize in vain. “I know of nowhere but Ueno Park that has achieved that and, moreover, continues to do so today.”
Photo by Fumitaka Miyoshi
Ueno Forest: Shinobazu Pond LotusUeno, a Global Capital of Culture
Ueno Forest lives on
Ueno Forest interweaves three elements: the natural, the cultural, and the historical. That’s why it continues to attract people today — and offers a vision of the ideal cityscape for the modern world.
Photo by Kuniko Hirano
Ueno Forest: Shiki Masaoka Memorial StadiumUeno, a Global Capital of Culture
Shiki Masaoka Memorial Baseball Field in Ueno Park. Photo by Go Takayama
Courtesy of Implementation Committee for New Concept "Ueno, a Global Capital of Culture” (Ueno Cultural Park)
Photos by Fumitaka Miyoshi, Hajime Suga, Natsuko Kato, Go Takayama, and Kuniko Hirano
Other photos courtesy of the National Diet Library Digital Collections and the US Library of Congress
Researched and written by Megumi Fukumitsu
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