#011 Kiyomizu-do & Shinobazu Pond, Ueno

The 11th scene in Utagawa Hiroshige’s “100 Famous Views of Edo” is the Ueno Kiyomizu-do Shinobazu Pond. The original painting is here.

The four main points of this picture are the Kiyomizu-do hall, then the cherry blossoms in full bloom, the oddly shaped pine tree, and the Shinobazu Pond beyond the trees. In this “100 Views stroll,” it is often difficult to find the scenery of the past because it has not been well preserved in the present, but here, unusually, all four of them are still existing.

However, it is rare that all four of them still exist, but it is not so easy to take a picture of them.

1 There was no place to take a distant view of the Ueno Kiyomizu Kannondo, so I went up to the stage and took this photo over the handrail. It was originally built in the 17th century at Kan-eiji Temple in Ueno, modeled after Kiyomizu Temple which guards the demon’s gate in Kyoto, but the current building was restored and reconstructed in 1996.
2 Cherry blossoms in full bloom were somehow captured in the picture angle.
3 The oddly shaped circular “Moon Pine” is a second generation pine tree that was restored in 2012 using modern landscaping techniques (the original pine tree was lost in a typhoon during the Meiji Era), and is now planted just beyond the stage of Kiyomizu instead of at the edge of the pond. For ease of viewing, another photo is provided below.
4 Shinobazu Pond is still existing, of course, but I gave up to include it in the composition because I could not see it from here due to the groves of cherry trees and other trees.

Therefore, I could not take a good picture of all four elements. It is truly regrettable.

This is the view of the Moon Pine and Kiyomizu-do in low angle.

Ueno Park was overflowing with cherry blossom-viewing visitors, and the top of Kiyomizu-do was also very crowded, especially with foreign tourists. It was always someone peeking at me or taking selfies with the moon pine tree in the background, so it was quite difficult to get the right moment to avoid people in the circle of pine trees.