Japanese Friendship Garden, Japanese garden in Balboa Park, San Diego, United States
The Japanese Friendship Garden and Museum occupies an 11-acre site in Balboa Park, set aside after the San Diego Yokohama Sister City Society identified it. Its master plan was drawn up by the firm Fong & LaRocca Associates with landscape architect Takeo Uesugi as Japanese garden design consultant, and approved in 1979. The garden is laid out on several levels with stone arrangements, bridges and koi ponds.
A Japanese teahouse and garden opened at the 1915 Panama–California Exposition, run for nearly thirty years by the Asakawa family until the garden was dismantled in 1941. In 1955 citizens revived the plan, and Yokohama sent a snow lantern in 1956. A master plan by Fong & LaRocca with consultant Takeo Uesugi was approved in 1979 for an 11-acre site.
The garden's name reflects the sister-city bond with Yokohama, which gave San Diego a snow lantern in 1956 and 100 cherry blossom trees in 1977. Each spring the garden holds a Cherry Blossom Festival with hanami flower viewing, Japanese street food, traditional dancers and taiko drum troupes.
The garden occupies an 11-acre site in Balboa Park, near the Organ Pavilion, where the Charles C. Dail Memorial Japanese Gate was dedicated in 1968. The grounds are laid out on several levels, so allow time to walk the paths at your own pace. The garden is entered from within the Balboa Park grounds.
The garden's name honours a specific civic link: San Diego's sister-city relationship with Yokohama, which supplied a snow lantern in 1956 and 100 cherry blossom trees in 1977. The trees went to the Wild Animal Park, while the lantern became the first tangible piece of the restoration effort.
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