Ueno Park

Ueno Park is defined by the expanse of its grounds, which were once the private domain of a sprawling Buddhist temple complex. Before the public arrived, this site was occupied by the Kan-ei-ji Temple, founded in sixteen twenty-five to guard the northeastern, spiritually vulnerable side of the capital. Much of that temple was burned during the Battle of Ueno in eighteen sixty-eight, a conflict that marked the end of the Tokugawa shogunate.