Japanese Tea Garden

I took my nieces to the Japanese Tea Garden at Golden Gate Park on November 11, the Veteran's Day holiday. It is the oldest public Japanese garden in the United States, this complex of many paths, ponds and a teahouse features native Japanese and Chinese plants. Also hidden throughout its five acres (20,000 m²) are sculptures and bridges.

The park was designed for the 1894 World's Fair in San Francisco. After the conclusion of the World's Fair, Makoto Hagiwara, a Japanese immigrant and gardener, approached the city engineer John McLaren with the idea to convert the temporary exhibit into a permanent park. Hagiwara personally oversaw the building of the Japanese Tea Garden and was official caretaker of the garden from 1895 to 1925. He specifically requested that one thousand flowering cherry trees be imported from Japan, as well as other native plants, birds, and the now famous goldfish. His family lived in and maintained the Japanese Tea Garden until 1942, when Executive Order 9066 forced them to leave San Francisco and relocate to an internment camp with thousands of other Japanese American families. The garden was renamed the 'Oriental Tea Garden', and the garden fell into disarray. It was resurrected in 1952 by the Park Trust. And it remains a beautiful gem in the city of San Francisco.

During my visit, I gave my nieces a free reign of my camera so that they could explore the park and capture the essence of its beauty through their own lenses. Take a look at some of their pictures below. It's pretty impressive! I hope they will always know and feel this gem in our city.

"Japanese tea garden"

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