Part Two of my Tokyo Tour: Another look at Ueno Park

This is part two of three for the day tour of Tokyo with reader “Johnl”. In our first part, we visited the famous Shinto Shrine of Yushima Tenmangu, and from there, it was a nice short walk to Ueno park. I had visited Ueno Park a couple weeks previous to see some old friends from our time living in Ireland, but with all the kids with us, I couldn’t really explore the Park itself much from the perspective of a Japan/Religion nerd. This time, the trip was very fruitful.

From Yushima Tenmangu, you can walk westward a few blocks (maps everywhere on the street) to Ueno Park and the famous Shinobazu Pond (不忍池) there:

At the far end of the pond, you can see a pagoda. This is a famous shrine to the goddess Benzaiten (or Benten for short), called bentendō (弁天堂), who is a patron of the arts (music, poetry, etc), and one of the Seven Luck Gods. We ventured over to visit the shrine up close:

You can also see the iconic lute, or biwa (琵琶), which is a frequent symbol of Benzaiten:

Based on the sign there, the shrine was built in the 17th century but was destroyed in the US air raids of 1945, and rebuilt in 1958. After we paid our respects (and got our pilgrimage books signed again), we stopped next door to another shrine devoted to Daikokuten, another of the Seven Luck Gods:¹

Or up close:

This shrine was overlooked compared to the Benzaiten shrine, but we paid our respects nevertheless and made our way up the hill to Ueno Park itself. One of the first places we visited was the conspicuous Kannon-dō Hall (観音堂) dedicated to Kannon Bodhisattva:

This temple is a branch temple of the famous Kiyomizudera temple in Kyoto, a very notable temple of the Hosso sect which I’ve frequently spoken of at length in the past. The temple is quite small, but well worth the visit. I picked up a pink Hello Kitty charm for my little girl who was thrilled when I brought it back home later that day.

Further down Ueno Park, my travel companion pointed out something easy to overlook. There is a small hill obscured by trees, but if you climb that hill, you can see a traditional style Buddhist stupa:

Where we found an image of the Medicine Buddha, and another larger statue of the Buddha’s face:

Soon we also came upon another sight: a large corridor of torii gates used in Shinto shrines:

This led to a pair of famous Shinto shrines next to each other, on different levels:

The one above is a shrine called Hanazono Inari Jinja (花園稲荷神社) dedicated to Inari Kami, arguably one of the most famous and popular Shinto Kami:

The one below, called Gojōten Taisha (五條天神社) is devoted to another popular Kami, though lesser-known in the West: Ōkuninushi (大国主). Ōkuninushi is often associated with match-making and marriage, due to the myths surrounding his love of Susanoo’s daughter. So, this shrine specializes in helping with love, or keeping marriages strong. Though I am happily married, it never hurts to have some spiritual “insurance”, so I made an offering here too.

Ōkuninushi’s most famous shrine is coincidentally the one in Kiyomizudera Temple in Kyoto where the two love-stones are, and the myth that one can find true love if they can walk from one to the other in a straight line. As they are 18m apart this is not trivial but I haven’t seen the place in years so I don’t remember. The home shrine of Ōkuninushi though is none other than Izumo Taisha Grand Shrine, one of the oldest and most venerable in Japan, and well-known in its own right among Japanese.

Gojōten shrine also houses a much lesser-known kami named Sukunahikona no Mikoto (or Sukunabikona, 少彦名命) who in turn is one of the three Kami of Cultivation (kaitaku sannin 開拓三神):

• Ōkunitama no Mikoto (大国魂命),
• Ōnamuchi no Mikoto (大己貴命)
• Sukunahikona no Mikoto (少彦名命)

It took a lot of work to figure that one out, by the way. Hopefully this last point will be a useful reference.

From here, “Johnl” and I were getting famished and suffering from “worship fatigue”. Ueno Station was nearby, we looked for an ATM as I needed some cash (found one at Japan Post to the south), then enjoyed some good Thai food, then Starbucks.

There was so much to see above, it’s hard to describe it all in one post, so I will try to revisit in the future. It was a great trip, we got a lot of stamps in our pilgrim books, and this led up to our last stop later in the day: Takahata Fudō temple, which I’ll cover in the next post.

¹ My father in law has an image of Daikokuten at the home Shinto altar (kamidana), no doubt to aid his business, or for just good luck in general. I was too embarrassed to ask.