Ueno Cohen Park

The Tokugawa Shoguns built Ueno Hill (now Ueno-Koen Park) with temples and sanctuaries, and since then the park with its cherry trees has become a favorite place of the aristocracy, especially during the hanami - admiring the cherry blossoms. It was here in 1867 that the first modernized army of modern Japan defeated 2,000 loyal Tokugawa clan supporters who opposed the Meiji Restoration. Surviving supporters of the military regime set fire to the Kaneji temple complex to keep it out of the hands of the reformers, but fortunately missed the Toshogu sanctuary, built in honor of Tokugawa Ieyasu himself.