上野公園地

About this print

This woodblock print shows Ueno Park in Meiji-era Tokyo. The record lists it as a sheet from Tokyo Meisho (Famous Places of Tokyo), drawn by Inoue Yasuji and Kobayashi Kiyochika, published by Fukuda Kumajiro, and dated 1877 (Meiji 10). However, Yasuji, a pupil of Kiyochika, is said to have begun publishing pictures only in 1880, so the dates do not match. Was the year simply written wrong in the record, or is it a clue that Yasuji was drawing earlier? This one sheet leaves us with a small mystery. Yasuji's series Tokyo Shinga Meisho Zukai (True Pictures of Famous Places in Tokyo), which the same publisher began issuing around 1881, also has a sheet with the same title.

Ueno Park was kept as a park on the advice of the Dutch doctor Bauduin and opened in 1876. In 1877 the first National Industrial Exhibition was held here, and in 1882 a museum and a zoo opened as well.

In 1924 the Imperial Household Ministry granted the park to the City of Tokyo, so today it is called Ueno Onshi Koen (Ueno Imperial Gift Park). It is home to museums, art museums, and a zoo.

Glossary