Park & garden
Sanshiro Pond
- Mon
- 00:00–23:59
- Tue
- 00:00–23:59
- Wed
- 00:00–23:59
- Thu
- 00:00–23:59
- Fri
- 00:00–23:59
- Sat
- 00:00–23:59
- Sun
- 00:00–23:59
- Hours
- Campus visits are requested between 07:00 and 18:00. Gate hours vary; Tatsuoka Gate is always open, while some main gates are closed on weekends and holidays.
- Price
- Admission is free.
- How to visit
- Individuals and groups of fewer than 15 people do not need advance registration; groups of 15 or more must register at least 7 days in advance. Keep quiet; photos and video are allowed only for personal use, while media and social-media publication is prohibited. Entry to most campus buildings is generally not permitted.
- Hours
- Free entry
- Hours
- About 20 min
Why it is worth the detour
This former daimyo-garden pond acquired its everyday name from Soseki's novel Sanshiro. In the book, the inexperienced student Sanshiro first encounters the mysterious Mineko here, and the fictional meeting became so famous that it displaced the pond's formal name in popular speech.
Sanshiro Pond is a serene former daimyo-garden pond located on the University of Tokyo Hongo Campus. It gained its everyday name from a famous scene in Soseki's novel 'Sanshiro'.
The people behind this address
Documented connections, not celebrity trivia.
Natsume Soseki
He made the pond the setting of a pivotal meeting in his novel Sanshiro.
What else is close by
The nearest places we have written up, with straight-line distance from here.
250 m
University of Tokyo Red Gate (Akamon)
The 1827 vermilion gate built by the Maeda lords to receive a shogun's daughter as a bride, now the symbol of Japan's top university.
800 m
Ueno Park
The former grounds of the powerful Kaneiji temple became a battlefield in 1868 and later Tokyo's great museum and cherry-blossom park.
900 m
Nezu Shrine
Its richly decorated 1706 buildings, azalea garden and tunnel of red torii offer one of Tokyo's best-preserved Edo-period shrine settings.
1.0 km
Ueno Toshogu Shrine
A gilded 1651 shrine to Tokugawa Ieyasu that survived the 1868 battle, the 1923 earthquake and the 1945 raids intact.
1.2 km
Ameyoko Market
A post-war black market under the Yamanote tracks that became a 400-metre bazaar of fish, candy, sneakers and spices.
1.3 km
National Museum of Western Art
Le Corbusier's only building in East Asia (1959, UNESCO), built around the Matsukata collection of Monet and Rodin.
Walk it with the stories
This address is one stop among many. Our routes and quests link them into a walk that makes sense on the ground.