A couple was climbing the steep stairs leading to the Sanno-dai in good company

Couple at the top of the steep stairs — Couple climbing steep stairs

As you enter Ueno Park from Ueno Hirokoji, you will see a gentle slope. When you come to a fountain, the slope gently leads to the National Museum and a steep staircase leads up to Sanno-dai, where the statue of Takamori Saigo stands.

Ueno Park, which is now just a place famous for cherry blossoms and a collection of museums, used to be the precincts of Kanei-ji Temple, which was built by the Shogun family to protect the demon's gate of Edo Castle, was a large temple with various buildings.

However, the precincts became a battlefield during the Battle of Ueno in 1868, and as a result, the main buildings were burned down and no longer exist. What a pity. Incidentally, the fountain at the point where you come in from Ueno Hirokoji and divide into two is where the "Kuromon Gate (Black Gate)", the front gate of Kanei-ji, used to stand, and the fountain is a monument to show that the Black Gate used to be here.

The strange thing is that the monument commemorating the former Kuromon Gate stands here, but the real Kuromon Gate has been moved to Entsu-ji Temple in Minami-Senju, not here. It is said that the Kuromon Gate at Entsu-ji Temple still bears the bullet holes, telling us the fierceness of the war in Ueno. It would have been a shame if the Black Gate, with its bullet holes, still stood in Ueno Park, as it would have been an appropriate monument to convey the history of the city and would have been a famous landmark.

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