place

Ueno Park

Buddhism in the Meiji periodHanami spots of JapanMeiji periodParks and gardens in TokyoPatlabor
Ueno ParkWorld's fair sites in Japan
Ueno park
Ueno park

Ueno Park (上野公園, Ueno Kōen) is a spacious public park in the Ueno district of Taitō, Tokyo, Japan. The park was established in 1873 on lands formerly belonging to the temple of Kan'ei-ji. Amongst the country's first public parks, it was founded following the western example as part of the borrowing and assimilation of international practices that characterizes the early Meiji period. The home of a number of major museums, Ueno Park is also celebrated in spring for its cherry blossoms and hanami. In recent times the park and its attractions have drawn over ten million visitors a year, making it Japan's most popular city park.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Ueno Park (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Ueno Park
Benten Bridge, Taito

Geographical coordinates (GPS) Address Nearby Places
placeShow on map

Wikipedia: Ueno ParkContinue reading on Wikipedia

Geographical coordinates (GPS)

Latitude Longitude
N 35.712222222222 ° E 139.77111111111 °
placeShow on map

Address

弁天堂

Benten Bridge
110-0007 Taito
Japan
mapOpen on Google Maps

Ueno park
Ueno park
Share experience

Nearby Places

Hotel Sofitel Tokyo
Hotel Sofitel Tokyo

Hotel Sofitel Tokyo (ホテルソフィテル東京) was a hotel high-rise building (106.07 m, 3 underground storeys) in Taito-ku, Tokyo (1-48, 2 Ikenohata, Taito-ku, Tokyo, Japan). It was established in 1994 as Hotel Cosima with 71 rooms on 26 cantilever floors: in 1999 it was purchased by Accor Group. After a brief refurbishment (with the number of rooms increased to 83) it was reopened as 4-star hotel in September 2000, but was soon closed in December 2006 and was demolished between February 2007 and May 2008. Hotel Sofitel was a late work of Japanese architect Kiyonori Kikutake (then 66 years old when the building was conceived), best known for his own pre-metabolist house (Sky House) and the Edo-Tokyo Museum (1993). The Hotel Sofitel building resembled some metabolist ideas (as Joint Core, capsules, modularity and the theoretical possibility of replacement of its parts). The building shows a direct similarity to Kikutake's earlier theoretical project "Tree-shaped Community" from 1968. However, this project consisted of a group of towers cross-shaped in the plan, and also shows a similarity to other metabolists projects such as the Nakagin Capsule Tower by Kisho Kurokawa and the Shizuoka Press and Broadcasting Tower by Kenzo Tange. It is said that the characteristic shape of the hotel building was inspired by the shapes of Japanese temples and pine trees. Despite some metabolist-like features the building itself cannot be seen as representative of the metabolist movement as it was designed long after the slow breakup of the metabolist groups in the late 1970s. The object referenced traditional Japanese architecture, which is characteristic of Kikutake's mature and late works (such as the Edo-Tokyo Museum, Izumo Grand Shrine Administration Building and the Toukouen Hotel).

Ueno
Ueno

Ueno (上野) is a district in Tokyo's Taitō Ward, best known as the home of Ueno Park. Ueno is also home to some of Tokyo's finest cultural sites, including the Tokyo National Museum, the National Museum of Western Art, and the National Museum of Nature and Science, as well as a major public concert hall. Many Buddhist temples are in the area, including the Bentendo temple dedicated to goddess Benzaiten, on an island in Shinobazu Pond. The Kan'ei-ji, a major temple of the Tokugawa shōguns, stood in this area, and its pagoda is now within the grounds of the Ueno Zoo. Nearby is the Ueno Tōshō-gū, a Shinto shrine dedicated to Tokugawa Ieyasu. Near the Tokyo National Museum there is The International Library of Children's Literature. Just south of the station is the Ameya-yokochō, a street market district that evolved out of an open-air black market that sprung up after World War II. Just east is the Ueno motorcycle district, with English-speaking staff available in some stores. Ueno is part of the historical Shitamachi (literally "low city") district of Tokyo, a working class area rather than where the aristocrats and rich merchants lived. Today the immediate area, due to its close proximity to a major transportation hub, retains high land value but just a short walk away to the east or north reveals some of the less glitzy architecture of Tokyo. Ueno Station is the nearest train station and is operated by JR East. Ueno Park and Ueno Station are also home to a large percentage of Tokyo's homeless population. Though nearly invisible in other parts of Tokyo, the homeless population in Ueno can be found sleeping or communing in large numbers around the "ike" (ponds) of this district.