Sakura Wars in Ueno Park

Last July I went to Ueno Park for the annual Sakura Taisen Midsummer Festival. The Taisho steampunk dating sim (I mean “dramatic”) adventure franchise turns 30 this year and these annual performances anchored by Shinguji Sakura voice actress Yokoyama Chisa have been part of it for most of that time. I wanted to see one while these were still ongoing, 30 years is a long time to be doing anything and I’d hate for them to stop before seeing one just because I assumed next year was an option.

The concert itself was a lot of fun; the performers are in character so it’s kind of like seeing a live stage performance from the in-game universe. This year Reni Milchstraße voice actress Ikura Kazue, Ogami Ichiro voice actor Suyama Akio, and “The Dandies” were part of the show and they all did musical numbers with skits in between such as doing a Shonen Red kamishibai show and recreating Ogami saving the dog in Sakura Wars 2. It ended with an encore from Sakura where she walked through the aisles and touched hands with literally the entire audience one by one as she did so. I can’t wait to go again next year, though I learned too late that Kohran’s voice actress was in it last year so she’s unlikely to appear. Yes, Kohran is best girl. Fight me.

The concert was held at Uneo Park Stage south of Shinabozu Pond, which made for a perfect opportunity to do some Sakura Wars sightseeing. The game series’ history with the park goes back to the first game’s opening scene when Sakura fights a demon in the park amidst the sakura. I also found some more unexpected connections at the park’s newly renovated Shitamachi Museum.

I think the game took some… creative liberties with Tenkai’s design.

Ueno and Tenkai

The park itself has ties to the game beyond the obvious because the first game’s antagonist was the priest Tenkai, who wished to punish the city for betraying the Tokugawa Shogunate. The real Tenkai served the first Tokugawa Shogun, Tokugawa Ieyasu, and in 1625 created a temple complex at what’s now Ueno Park to protect the northeastern gate Kimon, or Evil Gate, because that’s the direction evil comes from. When the forces of Saigo Takamori bloodlessly took Edo Castle in 1868, loyal retainers of the Tokugawa made their stand here on Ueno Hill and fought to the death. Most of the temple complex was destroyed in the battle and the land was confiscated by the state, which made it an ideal place to establish one of the nation’s first parks in 1873.

Toeizan Kaneij Temple

The “kusabi” lynchpin used by Tenkai’s minions in the game, the drill things they stab into the earth at vital points around the city, is shown to have been stored at Toeizan Kaneiji Temple in the manga adaptation. The main temple hall itself is roughly northwest of Tokyo National Museum and the former Imperial Library though technically all the still-standing temples in Ueno Park are part of Kaneiji as well.

The current Kompon Chu-do main hall was originally built in 1638 as part of Kita-in Temple in Kawagoe, Saitama Prefecture, where Tenkai had been the head priest before coming to Edo. It was moved to Ueno in 1879 and placed on one of the smaller temple grounds. The original hall was located about where the big fountain is in front of the Tokyo National Museum main building.

When visiting be sure to go inside and see the double dragon painting on the ceiling, which commemorates the temple’s 400^th anniversary. I came early, just before opening time, and watched a pair of gi-clad individuals practice karate in the parking lot. It has nothing to do with Sakura Wars; I just thought it was cool to see people practicing karate in the wild like they were getting ready for a Street Fighter tournament.

Tenkai Hair Pagoda

Though it’s not much, there’s still a little piece of Tenkai himself in Ueno Park at small memorial containing a lock of his hair. This was a little tricky to find as the park map shows its location as being where the monument to Wani the Scholar is, when really it’s a short ways behind it. According to the sign, Tenkai died at the age of 108 and was buried on Mt. Nikko.

Tenkai’s… Sword?

This last item concerning Tenkai is a conspiracy theory on top of another shady connection, but it’s inside the Tokyo National Museum and I’ll take any excuse to visit. There’s a theory that the priest Tenkai was really Akechi Mitsuhide, the vassal who betrayed and murdered Oda Nobunaga by attacking him at Honnoji Temple in 1582, changing the course of Japanese history. Of Japan’s three great unifiers, the other two unifiers worked for Oda until his sudden death. Toyotomi Hideyoshi and his forces hunted down and killed Akechi at the Battle of Yamazaki but Toyotomi didn’t examine the head himself afterwards. Years later this priest Tenkai shows up in Tokugawa Ieyasu’s inner circle and is given responsibility for the spiritual protection of his new capital. Who is this priest who Tokugawa just trusts as if he already knew him? That’s the conspiracy theory, anyway.

Inside the Tokyo National Museum’s arms and armor gallery is the “Akechi Goshirae” uchigatana with Akechi Mitsuhide’s family crest hidden on it; it’s believed to have belonged to Mitsuhide but not confirmed.

You should see the Tokyo National Museum regardless of whether or not any part of this story is true, it’s a magnificent museum and can be a full day out by itself. I spent the full day in the museum before heading to the concert, though I should have left earlier. I arrived in the Sakura Taisen concert queue a mere half hour before the doors opened (about 90 minutes before starting time) and they were out of XL-size T-shirts by the time I made my way to the concession stand. If you don’t get the shirt, can you say you even went?

I bought the neck towel and kept the complimentary Sakura uniform-clad water bottle though, so there’s that.

Shitamachi Museum

This museum near Shinabozu Pond is dedicated to Tokyo’s old Low Town which included Ueno and Asakusa. It was recently renovated and some of the area’s colorful history informed the creation of Sakura Wars, the Teikoku Kagekidan in particular.

Series creator Ohji Hiroi was inspired to create the theater troop in part because of his aunt, who was in Asakusa’s Shochiku Kagekidan (SKD) or Sochiku Revue, which performed in Asakusa from 1928 until quietly disbanding in 1996. As you’d expect, they performed musicals, operettas and plays. Like the more famous and still active Tabaruzaka Revue in Hyogo, as they were all women, some members were “beautiful women in men’s clothing” that specialized in performing male roles. He also stated that the Grand Imperial Theater is the International Theater where Shochiku performed until its demolition in 1982.

*I wonder if Ohji’s aunt is in either of these photos.*

This goes a step further with Asakusa Opera, which was a Taisho-era pop-style of performance geared more for mass appeal than traditional opera and was cheap to attend. Performances incorporated opera, musicals, comedy, and even jazz music. It made me wonder if the live Sakura Taisen show I’d seen the evening before would qualify as Asakusa Opera to some extent, except in Ueno. Sadly, the original era of Asakusa Opera ended on Sept.1, 1923 when the Great Kanto Earthquake destroyed the theaters, amongst many, many other things. In game, the earthquake was replaced with the damage wrought by the castle rising from the bay.

The museum doesn’t have much directly associated with SKD itself beyond a few photos, but it has a number of pamphlets and ephemera from its predecessor theater organization that was active in the early 1920s. It also gives a feel for the area during the Taisho-era and its vibrant entertainment industry, you’ll probably recognize it from the first game and anime’s depiction of the theater district.

Among its artifacts is an original Meiji-era Hanayashiki sign; Hanayashiki began as a botanical garden, hence the name “flower mansion.” It later morphed into an amusement park and zoo. Ohji seems to have grown up in Asakusa, so I can imagine putting a secret weapons lab under it would feel pretty exciting.

It used to have a full-sized recreation of a Taisho-era nagaya like the ones seen in the anime and OVAs but it’s been replaced with a mid-Showa backstreet. It’s a shame because I can find one of those in the wild still but no one has a 1920s Shitamachi nagaya.

Remember what we lost…

*Part of the current “back alley” that replaced the nagaya; its more hard to tell here but its a mid-century set up.*

They don’t show Shonen Red, but the new mid-century set does have a mini-live kamishibai performance telling the story of Shitamachi. Kamishibai, the art of street storytelling with illustrations is believed to have originated in Shitamachi during the Great Depression; the appeal being that the story was free to gather around and listen to but the storyteller also sold cheap treats to eat while listening. Kind of like how movie theaters make most of their money in the concession stands and not from ticket sales.

Even with the nagaya removal, I still like this museum and its singular focus on the old Low Town.

Saigo Statue

This is where Sakura and Ogami first met in the Sakura Wars manga adaptation. Saigo Takamori was one of the men most responsible for bringing about the Meiji Restoration and most significantly in Tokyo, he bloodlessly negotiated the city’s surrender at Edo Castle but his forces still had to fight those loyal to the Shogunate here on Ueno Hill. He died in 1877 leading a rebellion against the government he helped create but in 1889 was posthumously pardoned and this statue of him walking his dog Tsun was erected in Ueno Park in 1898.

Personally this has some significance to me as I took my picture under the statue of this samurai in 2012 with the help of a random passerby. When I brought my wife to Tokyo for the first time having our picture taken under this statue was at the top of our to-do list, Dave was on hand this time to handle the camera.

Nearby are the stairs Sakura runs up to get a better view of the city after arriving at Ueno Station in the anime. I’m kind of surprised they showed the stairs and the view, which means she’d have run past Saigo without them showing such a well-known sight.

Sakura Wars Anime Overlook

*Screen caps from 1996 are small and do not like upscaling.*

The view lacks a certain romanticism these days…

Ueno Station

Technically this is next to the park, but I still wanted to bring it up because this is where Sakura first arrived in the capital and immediately walks into traffic, nearly getting hit, in the anime adaptation.

The station itself was the terminus for travel from the north, where Sendai people like Sakura came from, and was blandly utilitarian compared to the southern terminus, Shimbashi Station, and its successor, Tokyo Station. Those stations were meant to impress visitors, whereas only poor country people come from the north.

Ueno Station in the Taisho-era (Wikimedia Commons)

What I found amusing about this, is that some time ago I read a complaint about country people exiting the station, being awed by the city, and immediately wandering into traffic nearly causing accidents. Way to go, historical accuracy in anime adaptations!

The Ueno Station seen in Sakura Wars was lost in the Great Kanto Earthquake and the current oldest part of the station opened in 1932. It’s near the southeastern end of the park, though it’s now so long and spread out that its easier trying to walk around the station than move through it. If you get a chance, go in and admire the interior of the old station and check out the Hard Rock Café, if that’s your thing.

Another bit of Sakura Wars-related trivia is that the first subway in Asia opened in 1927 connecting Ueno to Asakusa. One of Kohran Li’s image songs is Metro de Ikou, which is about a romantic day out riding the subway from Asakusa to Ginza. This is from Sakura Wars 2: Thou Shalt Not Die which is set in 1925 and it seems the reconstructing of Tokyo post-1923 (Sakura Wars) time-jumps the city by about a decade in two years. In the real world, Ginza would not be connected to the subway line until 1934. It gained the name “Ginza Line” in 1953.

If you’ve decided to see these places for yourself, I hope that along the way you’ll discovered Ueno Park’s many other charm points and little diversions. This is one of my favorite places in Tokyo that I come back to year after year. It may take longer, but I’m working on a second article reflecting back on Ueno as I first saw it about 15 years ago and with the understanding I’ve gained since, how I see and appreciate it now.