Ueno Tōshōgū

photo by Kakidai · CC BY-SA 3.0

photo by Reggaeman · CC BY-SA 3.0

Golden Hall from 1651, an Important Cultural Property: viewed from outside, ticket 700 yen.

On both sides of the stairway leading to the karamon gate (the Chinese-style gate) run stone and bronze lanterns, and the steps themselves number about a hundred: the public route, from the torii to the worship hall, is about a hundred metres long and takes around ten minutes. Behind the see-through fence, for 700 yen, you can see the Golden Hall (金色殿), covered in gold leaf, up close; the interior cannot be visited.

Shrine dedicated to Tokugawa Ieyasu, founded in 1627 and rebuilt in 1651 at the wish of the third shōgun Tokugawa Iemitsu, on the model of the Tōshōgū at Nikkō. The Golden Hall and its structures are a national Important Cultural Property (重要文化財), not a National Treasure, as some English-language tourist pages wrongly state. In the grounds, a peony garden (ぼたん苑) opens with a separate ticket in three seasonal windows: winter peonies in January–February, spring peonies in April–May, dahlias in autumn.

ℹ️ Grounds: winter (October–February) 9:00–16:30, summer (March–September) 9:00–17:30, free entry. Golden Hall (ticket): winter 9:30–16:00, summer 9:30–17:00; adults 700 yen, children 300 yen, groups of 20+ people 600 yen. The peony garden has its own ticket (about 1,000 yen in spring) and opens only in the seasonal windows. Inside Ueno Park; since the restoration of the building, several reviews report a marked increase in souvenir stalls along the route.

🚉 Keisei-Ueno · 8 min walk

Sources: uenotoshogu.com · uenobotanen.com

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