Around Ueno Station: before it was Ueno

Did Ueno Borrow Its Name from Iga-Ueno?

One well-known explanation links Tokyo's Ueno with Iga-Ueno, a castle town in present-day Mie Prefecture. Taito City's cultural website connects the name with the powerful daimyo Todo Takatora, whose Edo residence occupied land around today's Ueno Zoo and Ueno Toshogu Shrine. However, another article published by the same city notes a competing historical problem: the name Ueno may already have existed before Tokugawa Ieyasu established his government in Edo. This means the Todo explanation should be treated as a theory, not an established origin. Takatora received land in this area during the early Edo period and returned it to the shogunate when construction of Kaneiji Temple began in 1624. Ueno Toshogu and the surviving Todo family memorials preserve connections with that period, even if the district's name may be older.

→ Visit Ueno Toshogu Shrine, a surviving landmark associated with the early Edo-period history of this area.

Sources (in Japanese): 台東区文化探訪・上野駅に想う, 台東区文化探訪・上野動物園に遊ぶ, 台東区文化探訪・寛永寺の子院を歩く

Was Ueno Park Once a Battlefield at the Fall of the Shogunate?

On May 15, 1868, the grounds of today's Ueno Park became the scene of a battle between the new imperial government's forces and the Shogitai, a group defending the former Tokugawa order. The confrontation, known as the Battle of Ueno, devastated much of Kaneiji Temple, where the Shogitai had assembled.

Kaneiji had been established in 1625 and maintained close connections with the Tokugawa shoguns. During the Edo period, temple halls and subsidiary buildings occupied much of what visitors now know as Ueno Park.

Following the battle, the area was transformed. Ueno Park opened in 1873, and Japan's first National Industrial Exhibition was held here in 1877. A zoo opened in 1882. In 1883, a railway connecting Ueno and Kumagaya began operating, making Ueno an important gateway to northern Japan. The Ueno–Asakusa subway line opened in 1927.

Within a few generations, this district changed from a major Buddhist complex into a battlefield, a public park, an exhibition ground, and a transportation hub. Traces of these earlier identities remain visible today.

→ Look for the Shogitai memorial grave and the former site of Kaneiji's main hall near the park's fountain plaza.

Sources (in Japanese): 台東区「台東文化探訪アーカイブス・上野の史跡」, 台東区「寛永寺を訪ねる」, 台東区「上野のまちづくり・歴史資料」, 東京都公園協会「都立公園年表」, 台東区「上野公園の史跡・彰義隊の墓」, 台東区「都市の変遷と上野駅の歴史」