Winter sees Shinobazu Pond in Ueno come alive with winged visitors from the North. Pintail and wigeons arrive early in September, followed by shovelers, mallards, pochard and tufted ducks arriving by November. Along with the resident gallinules, spot-billed ducks and cormorants -- and the perennial sea gulls from Tokyo Bay -- the pond's waterfowl population swells to thousands during the coldest months.
The pond dates from the 1620s, when the area was landscaped as a "religious paradise" annexed to the Kan'ei-ji Temple built on the upland of Ueno. The lowland where the pond was created used to be a marsh where the Yata River (mentioned in this column last month) discharged onto the alluvial plain of the Ara.
Lotuses were planted in the shallow new pond, and an island was built with a shrine dedicated to Benten, Japan's version of Sarasvati, the Hindu goddess of rivers, learning and the arts. In those early decades of the Edo Period, while Kan'ei-ji basked in its prestige as the shogun's prayer temple, exclusive to the Tokugawa family, the pond was open to the public and much admired for its seasonal beauty.