Ueno Station

(Above:) Ueno Station, Tokyo. The first Ueno Station opened in 1883, allowing rail access into Tokyo from the northern provinces. It's simple design underscored the more typically rural passenger who used the terminal as their portal into the capital as seen in this ca. 1910 image.

The original Ueno Station opened in 1883, establishing the first rail link to Japan's northern provinces aboard trains operated by the then-privately-owned Japan Railway Company. The station was of very modest and simple design; a stark reminder of the divide that existed between go-go Meiji-era Tokyo and the country's poorer, rural hinderlands. Service between Ueno and Kumagaya was initiated in 1883; local and express through-service to Aomori, at the northern tip of the main island of Honshu, was completed in 1891.

Ueno Station was (and still is) located on the eastern edge of Ueno Park, facing Tokyo's old city, Shitamachi [Lower field], the working-class downtown. The original station was lost in the 1923 Great Kanto earthquake and replaced with the now-familiar steel-framed, concrete building still standing (and much expanded) today. Right-of-way between Tokyo Central Station and Ueno was acquired by the national railroad in the 1920s, finally enabling the completion of the Yamanote "loop" in 1925. Prior to this, a passenger seeking transit to Shinagawa, Shimbashi or Tokyo Central Station aboard the Yamanote from Ueno had to ride counter-clockwise via Ikebukuro, Shinjuku and Shibuya -- a 45-minute journey that now takes less than 5-minutes to complete.

The original terminal was destroyed in the 1923 Great Kanto earthquake. It was replaced with another modestly designed, unadorned terminal constructed of steel and concrete. However, Ueno was one the first rail stations in Tokyo (the other being Shimbashi) to be directly served by the new Teito underground that opened in 1927.

In the weeks following the surrender of Japan in 1945, a large and lively black market appeared in the immediate vicinity of Ueno Station. A visible remnant of the market remains today across from the main station entrance when one passes under the entrance sign of the Amerakaya [fr. "America store"] shopping street.