Image search results - "ueno" - JAPAN PHOTOS by Philbert Ono

Image search results - "ueno"

Statue of Ueno Hikoma

Cherry blossom pathUeno Park is one of Tokyo's major spots for cherry blossoms. Not very picturesque, but there are a lot of trees and people. The cherries at adjacent Shinobazu Pond are more picturesque.

Trees in full bloom

Dancers under the cherry blossoms in Ueno Park, Tokyo

Rock musicians

Reserved flower-viewing spacePeople come early in the morning and stake out a prime picnicking space for their company or group to gather later in the day or in the evening.

Statue of Ueno Hikoma

Reserving flower-viewing spacePeople come early in the morning and stake out a prime picnicking space for their company or group to gather later in the day or in the evening.

Reserved flower-viewing space for the evening.People come early in the morning and stake out a prime picnicking space for their company or group to gather later in the day or in the evening.

Trash

Toward the Tokyo National Museum

Tokyo National Museum

Statue of Ueno Hikoma

Statue description

Also at night, Ueno Park is hugely popular for hanami.

The trees are not well lit, but small paper lanterns make it viewable.

Lot more people eating and drinking at night than during the day.

Ueno Park at night

Neon lights near Ueno Park

Ueno Hikoma birthplace

Site of Ueno Hikoma residence and studioHikoma opened Japan's first portrait studio here in 1862. The site is now occupied by a parking structure.

Site of Ueno Hikoma residence and studio

Description of Ueno Hikoma residence and studioIt says that Hikoma opened Japan's first photo studio here in 1862.

Site of Ueno Hikoma residence and studio

Grave of Ueno Hikoma

Photo museum

Iga-Ueno Castle is one of three major tourist attractions in the city of Iga. It is a short walk from Ueno-shi Station on the Kintetsu Iga Line.

Stone marker for Ueno Castle located in Ueno Park. Officially called Ueno Castle and nicknamed Hakuho Castle or Iga-Ueno Castle. Noted for cherry blossoms in April and the highest castle walls in Japan.

Iga-Ueno Castle was first built by Takigawa Katsutoshi, a vassal of Kitabatake Nobuaki (Oda Nobuo, Nobunaga's second son). In 1585, Tsutsui Sadatsugu took over. initiated construction of Iga Ueno Castle in 1585. He was followed by Tsutsui Sadatsugu

They are still excavating a few areas of the castle for historical remains. I visited in April 2009.

In 1611, Todo Takatora took over Ueno Castle. Iga-Ueno Castle is also a major cherry blossom spot in early April.

Iga-Ueno Castle and cherry blossoms, Mie Prefecture.

Iga-Ueno Castle and cherry blossoms, Mie Prefecture. During the Meiji Restoration, Ueno Castle's structures were dismantled as with many other castles.

Iga-Ueno Castle's donjon or tenshu tower was reconstructed in 1935 by Kawasaki Katsu, a local politician, using his own funds.

Iga-Ueno Castle and cherry blossoms, Mie Prefecture.

In 1980, Ueno Castle served as a backdrop for Kurosawa Akira's movie, Kagemusha.

Inside the castle tower is the Iga Museum of Culture and Industry. This is the first floor.

Todo Takatora was originally from Omi or neighboring Shiga Prefecture.

Todo Takatora's helmet

Samurai armor

Bust of Kawasaki Katsu.

Top floor

View from atop Iga-Ueno Castle.

View from atop Iga-Ueno Castle, looking toward Ueno-shi Station.

Park area above the castle wall.

You could jump off into the moat below. No fences, so watch your kids.

Edge of castle wall.

One of the tallest castle walls in Japan.

Hiroshige's woodblock print of Iga-Ueno from his "Famous Views of the 60 Provinces" series. The castle can be seen in the distance.

Iga Ueno Danjiri Museum

Inside Iga Ueno Danjiri Museum.

Ueno-shi Station

Ueno-shi Station has ninja dolls to greet you.

Even the trains have a ninja (female) paint job.

Ninja paint job on a train.

Iga-Ueno really plays up its ninja past.

Iga-ryu Ninja House is in Ueno Park which includes Iga-Ueno Castle nearby.

Iga-ryu Ninja House is a thatched-roof house whose roof once caught fire in the 1990s. It was rebuilt.

Iga-ryu Ninja House garden. They take you in groups, so you may have to wait a while before you can go in.

Once a group gets large enough, they take you all in and a female ninja guide explains the house's ninja trickery. Admission charged. Recommended is the set of tickets that admit you to the ninja house, castle, and Danjiri Museum.

The first demo is this swinging wall.

Lets you escape to the next room instantly, or climb up or down the ladder on the right wall.

This is a staircase concealed as a shelf.

Now a shelf. It leads to the attic.

Another wall door that leads to the basement tunnel.

Entrance to the basement.

Another swinging wall door.

Inside the Iga-ryu Ninja House.

Emergency escape hatch whose lock can be quickly released with a sheet of paper.

There she goes.

Hidden floor compartment where they hid their valuables outside the house.

When you push in the end of this floor plank, it opens up to reveal a sword.

Sword hidden in the floor.

Kunoichi female ninja guide

Inside the Iga-ryu Ninja House

An altar in the Iga-ryu Ninja House.

Kitchen area in Iga-ryu Ninja House.

Kitchen in Iga-ryu Ninja House.

Ninjas in the kitchen. We could not go up into the attic as we can in Koka's ninja house in Shiga.

Kitchen

Thatched-roof of Iga-ryu Ninja House.

Veranda of Iga-ryu Ninja House

Revolving door of Iga-ryu Ninja House

Iga-ryu Ninja Museum

Ninja disguises

Lock picks

Flipper-like clogs to walk through swamps

What would a ninja museum be without a display of shuriken?

Ninja swords are short and straight with no curvature.

For an extra 200 yen, you can watch the ninja show right next to the ninja house.

Iga-ryu Ninja House ninja show.

Sword demo

Shuruken takes skill to throw.

Juggling sickles. Having a sickle did not arouse suspicion as it was a common farming tool. But for the ninja, it was an effective weapon.

Throwing sickles and shuriken.

Duel to the death.

You have to applaud once in a while.

Shuriken throwing.

Nakayama Emiri, a TV personality, tries to throw shuriken.

Another ninja museum.

Inside ninja museum which is in a former rice warehouse.

Making medicine.

Ninja costumes

Five-colored rice grains used for secret communication.

More secret ninja language.

Rope knots hung on roof eaves, etc., were also used for communication.

Ninja swords.

Iron claws

Bamboo sticks concealing a sword.

Pepper bombs to blind you.

Cushion

Iga-Ueno Ninja Festa poster

During April and early May, they hold the annual ninja festa.

See many people wearing ninja costumes during the ninja festa.

Where you can rent a ninja costume.

Ninjas under cherry blossoms.

Female ninja

Female ninja climbing over a wall.

Even ninja get thirsty.

Ninja shop

Ninja doll on a pole.

Everywhere you go in Iga-Ueno, you see a ninja motif.

Storefront shutter with ninja drawings.

Iga-Ueno is very successful in promoting its ninja past and drawing tourists. Also see the Koga-ryu Ninja House in Shiga.

Iga-Ueno's Ueno Park includes this beautiful building called the Haisei-den (俳聖殿), a hall dedicated to Haiku poet Matsuo Basho who was from Iga-Ueno.

A short walk from Iga-Ueno Castle and almost next to the ninja house, the Haisei-den was built in 1942 to mark the 300th anniversary of Basho's birth.

The building was designed by architect Ito Chota (1867-1954) (伊東忠太) who designed numerous shrine and temple buildings in the 1920s and '30s, including Tsukiji Hongwanji temple in Tokyo.

The Haisei-den was designed to look like Basho in travel clothing. The top roof resembles a hat, and the lower roof resembles his straw raincoat. Cherry blossoms were in bloom.

Haisei-den and wisteria in bloom. The Basho Matsuri Festival is a poetry reading held here on Oct. 12.

Inside the Haisei-den is a ceramic statue of Basho.

Iga-yaki ceramic statue of Basho inside the Haisei-den.

A short walk from Ueno Park is the Basho Oseika (芭蕉翁生家) or Basho's childhood home. Iga is the birthplace of Matsuo Basho (1644-1694), and the house where he grew up in still stands.

The house is open to the public as a tourist attraction (admission 300 yen). The house was rebuilt after it being damaged by a large earthquake in 1854.

Room inside Basho's childhood home.

Small door to the kitchen. People must have been pretty short then.

Kitchen area with a well on the left and stoves toward the right.

Water well

Kitchen stoves

Toilets and bath

Urinal

The back of the house is Basho's study called Chogetsuken (釣月軒) where he wrote the Kai-ooi (貝おほい) series of poems.

Inside the Chogetsuken study. 釣月軒

The study is a very simple, yet aesthetic and meditative-looking room.

Statue of Basho at Ueno-shi Station.

The city of Nagahama boldly opened a little museum in Ueno, Tokyo called “Biwako Nagahama Kannon House” (びわ湖長浜 KANNON HOUSE) on March 21, 2016.

The museum is small, but nice. It has only one medium-size room divided into the kannon exhibition space and a mini theater showing a video about Nagahama.

“Biwako Nagahama Kannon House” (びわ湖長浜 KANNON HOUSE)

It exhibits one precious kannon Buddha statue (Goddess of Mercy) brought over from Nagahama, Shiga Prefecture. The exhibit changes every two months so Tokyoites can see six different kannon statues from Nagahama every year.

This Kannon is from Sonju-in temple (尊住院) in Nagahama’s Kawamichi-cho district.

The small exhibition space is enclosed by a wooden, temple-like fence modeled after a Kannon-do (観音堂) or small kannon worship hall. The wood is hinoki cypress from Nagahama.