Field Study Report: Ueno 121303

We first got together in front of Ueno Culture Center (Ueno Bunka Kaikan), which stands across the Westside exit of JR Ueno Station as the gateway to Ueno Central Park (Ueno Kohen). The hall is mainly prepared for musical performances and related concerts, but we did not go inside since there was no particular event occurring when we were there. We separated into two groups: one that wanted to visit nearby museums, and the other that wanted to explore the city. Tokyo National Museum, Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Fine Arts, and National Science Museum are three main centers of educative exhibitions that amalgamate traditional, modern, and futuristic aspects of arts and humanities. Of specific interest to some of my students was Tokyo National Museum, which is the largest museum in Japan where one could spend hours, even days, trying to see all parts. The collection is divided between three buildings: the main gallery for Japanese and applied art; Hyohkeikan that consists of Japanese, Ainu, and Okinawan artefacts; and Tohyohkan that displays artifacts from other Asian countries. These institutions, which were originated in the early part of Meiji period (1868-1912), line up on the hilltop area of Ueno Park. Those members of the group that visited these places observed inter-/cultural expressions that are inherent in the way things are exhibited.

A hill-side swampland of approximately 1 square kilometers, Ueno lies to the northeast of the Imperial Palace. During the Edo period (1603-1868), this area developed as a part of old downtown (shitamachi), even though this NE direction was considered unlucky according to geomantic feng-shui, the area was reshaped into a protected living quarter through Kan'eiji Temple under the order of the second Tokugawa shogun, Hidetada Tokugawa (1579-1632, the third son of Ieyasu). Kan'eiji was supposed to operate as a guardian temple that protects the city from evil spirits. Over thirty temples buildings were built ever since, many of which are still visited by hundreds of people today. Ueno consists of many historical events, mystical stories, and sightseeing spots. On the sunny afternoon of December 13, 2003, twelve exchange students from PRC, Korea, Myanmar, and Sri Lanka and I visited the area to conduct a field survey. Our survey focused on urban layouts and interpersonal organizations.

As the first group went their way, the second group, including myself, walked westward along the park's central avenue where a large portion of 1300+ cherry trees stand. This park hill road is famous for the gathering of thousands of blue mat-toting merrymakers in spring. These people come to function as the constituents of hanami (cherry-blossom watching) oblivion. It is also famous much recently for emergent number of street performers who appear and perform furing weekends. This particular performance incorporated an Edo road-performance style in which a woman, dressed in happi, attracted audiences with her skills to create various objects out of a set of sticks she held in her hand. She had enough verbal skills to pull audiences into her world, too!

Exploring local food stands is another important part of our fieldwork, and here we are eating fried noodles (yakisoba) sold by a nice old lady in a nearby food stand for 300 yen a pack. Baked wheat-balls with chunks of octopus inside (takoyaki), baked corn knobs (yakitohmorokoshi), caramel puffs (karumera), are some of the representative fast-foods other than yakisoba that are sold in traditional food stands. Having spent enough time in the park area, we headed southeast toward the city-market area.

Coming down the central avenue, one notices a small, curious area on the right-hand side that consists of many red Shintoesque gates that line up downward like dominos. These are the components of Gojoh Tenjin Shrine, a place dedicated to the gods of medicine and learning. Next to this site is another shrine called Tohshohguh, which is the historical pride of Ueno Park that was originally built in 1627. On the left side of its main torii gate stands one of the three largest lanterns in Japan.

Coming out of the hill, we walked into a pond area. This pond, known as Shinobazu Pond, is divided into three sections: one for the zoo, one for boating, and one for natural scenes that include lotuses, ducks and cormorants. Amidst this pond is a bridged island on which there is a well-known Benten Hall that is dedicated to the goddess of wisdom and monetary prosperity (Benzaiten).

At the central area of Gojoh shrine, we tried to enhance our knowledge of how Shinto purification rituals may take place in the area: rinsing of hands and mouth; ringing a bell that hangs in front of the shrine's main building; writing and hanging of religious plaques or Japanese retablos (ema); and fortunetelling by numbered sticks (omikuji).

Our final place of exploration this day was a busy market street along the tracks of JR Yamanote line called Ameyoko. An abbreviation of Ameya Yokochoh or "candy store alley," this busy street evolved as a black market after the Second World War. It is said that "ame" part of the term refers to the fact that the very first stores to operate in this area were candy stands where chocolates and caramel bars that were offered by American GIs were sold. According to this legend, "ame" also refers to "America" due to the fact that many American products were available in the back market. We found through our observation that American and American style products are continuously sold and bought, and these Today, and these include jacket, shirts, jeans, caps, and boots. These products attract youngsters, while other more traditional Japanese products, being mostly food products such as raw tuna chunks, packaged salmon roes, dried seaweeds and dried squids, are targeted for many elders who visit to consume them for much lower prices for the same amount they can get elsewhere. One of my student is here interviewing a man who sold dried bonito bars (katsuobushi). He kindly showed us how this curious sample is expected to be used Eto be flaked by a special scraping tool and either be thrown into a miso soup to get its fishy flavor out or to be flaked onto traditional pancakes etc.

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