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Updated: October 23, 2024
Tokio has many other temples and parks, but of these, as I have said, Ueno is the most popular; around us were crowds of gayly dressed grown people and children, all in holiday attire; various games for adults and children were in progress, and there was a tea-house where refreshments were being served. To me this appeared in very truth a park for the people.
It has already been related that a shrine of Confucius was built in Ueno Park by the Tokugawa daimyo of Owari, and that the third shogun, Iemitsu, visited this shrine in 1633 to offer prayer. Fifty years later, the fifth shogun, Tsunayoshi, followed that example, and also listened to lectures on the classics by Hayashi Nobuatsu.
In each of these the decorations are of gilt and different colors, with elaborate patterns which are almost dazzling to the eye. On one occasion we visited Ueno Park, famed for its temples and tombs of the Shoguns; it is a most popular resort in Tokio, and is celebrated for its display of cherry blossoms in the month of April, during which season there are held gala times.
There is also a long row of very large stone lanterns, presented as a tribute to the memory of the Shogun, Ieyasu. While in Ueno Park the attendant pointed out, in a small enclosure, two diminutive trees, a hinoki, planted by General Grant, and a magnolia by Mrs. Grant during their visit to Tokio. The Ueno Museum proved interesting, particularly in the historical and archæological departments.
In accordance with his last will his son Yoshinao, daimyo of Owari, built, in 1636, the Daiseiden College beside the temple of Kiyomizu in Ueno Park, near the villa of Hayashi Kazan, the celebrated Confucian scholar; but, in 1691, the college was moved to the slope called Shohei-zaka, where a bridge Shohei-bashi was thrown across the river.
The Botanical Garden is also quite interesting. A long, imposing street led down to it from Ueno Park, and on this were situated the principal shops of the city, with curio nooks in abundance. These, of course, were larger and more pretentious than the bazars spoken of elsewhere, some of them being three stories in height, the first of the kind we had seen in Japan.
Six Shoguns, members of the Tokugawa family, lie buried at Ueno. In general style the tombs here resemble those at Shiba Park. There are many objects of interest in Ueno Park other than its temples. One is the bronze image of Buddha, twenty-one and a half feet high, known as Dai-butsu, near which is a massive torii. We passed along an avenue of stately cryptomerias where stands an ancient pagoda.
Yet they had only obeyed the doctrine of Confucius, and the shogun therefore endeavoured to save their lives. More than a year was spent discussing the issue, and it is recorded that Tsunayoshi appealed to the prince-abbot of Ueno in order to secure his intervention in the cause of leniency.
"'Sta 'ueno!" they would whisper, watching Edith May, who upon such occasions was wont to enliven things by bursting into tears, and who commonly brought upon the following day a note from her mother, stating that Edith May must be excused for missing in spelling because she had not been at all well and had misunderstood the word.
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