Benten Hall floating in Shinobazu Pond can be seen beyond the moon pine tree in Shimizu Kannon Hall

Moon Pine trees in Ueno Park — Moon Pine trees at Kiyomizu Kannon Hall

There were various buildings in Ueno Park when it was the precincts of Kanei-ji Temple. However, many of them were destroyed by fire during the Ueno War at the end of the Edo period. One of the few surviving structures is the Kiyomizu Kannon Hall.

Just as Hieizan Enryaku-ji Temple was built to protect the demon's gate of the Kyoto Imperial Palace, Kanei-ji Temple was built to protect the demon's gate of Edo Castle, and many structures were built to resemble famous temples in Kyoto as well as Enryakuji Temple. The existing Kiyomizu Kannon Hall, as one can easily imagine from its name, was built in the image of Kiyomizu Temple in Kyoto.

Although it is small in scale, it is built in the so-called stagecraft style, which means that it is built on a slope like Kiyomizu Temple. If you look beyond the "moon pine tree," a ring of bent pine branches near the stage floor, you can clearly see Benten-do floating on Shinobazu Pond.

The moon pine tree was a famous spot in Edo, which was also depicted by Hiroshige Utagawa in his ukiyoe prints. However, the pine tree that Hiroshige drew was burned down in the early Meiji period and was not restored until 2012, about 150 years later. Because the location and size of the restored pine tree differ from those of the Edo period, the scenery beyond the pine tree differs from Hiroshige's "Moon Pine in Ueno Mountain". Nevertheless, I felt a little closer to the Edo period when I saw the Benten Hall beyond the moon pine.

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