After all of the times I'd been to The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens, there was one major area I'd never seen: the Japanese Garden, added by Henry Huntington to his then-private estate in 1912.
That is, until I finally got to visit in November 2023. (Sorry it's taken me so long to share my experience!)
At the center of the nine-acre garden (which has grown from its original two acres) is a traditional Japanese wooden drum bridge (Taiko-bashi), or "Moon Bridge," which was built in 1913 and curves over a pond. Before the 2011 renovation of the garden, it was painted bright red.
Strolling along the meandering pathways, you pass stone lanterns...
...as the faux bois (concrete formed to look like wood) railings come into view in the distance.
The tranquil, lush setting feels less like a garden and more like a Japanese forest...
...where climbing an imposing staircase leads to a bell purchased by Huntington in 1914.
The main attraction of the Japanese Garden used to be a five-room wooden house from Japan—originally built as a commercial teahouse—that arrived in Pasadena around 1904 and was relocated to the San Marino estate in 1911. It was most recently renovated in 2011.
But the newest landmark to be added to the Japanese garden has also been around the longest: the Japanese Heritage Shōya House, which is about 320 years old (and accessible through a newly reconstructed gate house, above).
The Shōya House is the historic ancestral home of Angelenos Yohko and Akira Yokoi—formerly located in the rural area of Marugame, Japan and surrounded by terraced rice fields. It was built around the year 1700, during the preindustrial, Edo period (which lasted until 1867). It opened at The Huntington in October 2023, after eight-year process of relocating it.
The wood and plaster exterior features entryways and windows made of both glass and rice paper.
Clay tiles adorn the roof, which slopes down to more ornamental tiles, including those that are illustrated with a symbol representing a seed and sprout and others decorated with the Yokoi family crest (which depicts the katabami symbol, a representation of the plant wood sorrel).
Unfortunately the original roof tiles had to be broken to remove them from the original roof in order to move the whole thing halfway across the world. But Japanese artisans were brought on to recreate them to their exact specs for the reassembled house at The Huntington.
The word "shōya" means head of the village—and the front rooms of the Shōya House (now on public view) were used for official functions. Tatami mats made of natural materials cover the floors.
The house itself is part of a two-acre compound, which also includes the gatehouse, a courtyard, and garden plantings. Rocks were brought in from the original Marugame site and placed in the same exact positions relative to the house.
Looking back, there were way too many details for me to absorb in just one visit, with the advance of night beginning its conquer of the day.
But we had just enough time to get a good look at the Bonsai Court, which was part of a 1968 expansion of the Japanese Garden.
There are now around 400 of these "trees in pots" (which is what the word bonsai means in Japanese) in the collection, including tiny, pruned versions of pinyon pine, California juniper, bald-cypress, olive, and other tree species. Some are as many as 500 years old.
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