Ueno Cherry Blossom Festival

Ueno Sakura Matsuri celebrates roughly 800 cherry trees across 50 varieties planted in a tradition traced back some 400 years to the priest Tenkai, who brought specimens from Mount Yoshino to what was then Kaneiji Temple. The modern festival, running over 70 years, lights the park's central pathway with 800 lanterns for evening viewing during peak bloom.

Ueno Park's association with cherry blossoms dates back roughly four hundred years to the Kanei era, when the Buddhist priest Tenkai, advisor to the early Tokugawa shoguns, brought cherry tree specimens from Mount Yoshino, then already renowned for its blossoms, and planted them on the grounds of Toeizan Kaneiji Temple, the family temple of the Tokugawa clan built on the site.