Japanese Friendship Garden of San Diego

For many years a Japanese Garden has been the dream of San Diegans, many of whom recall our original Japanese Teahouse.

Built in 1915 for the Panama-California Exposition, the Teahouse stood for more than thirty years as a symbol of the strong cultural and commercial ties that link two of the world's leading nations.

The Japanese Friendship Garden Society of San Diego has roots in the 1915 World Exposition. After the Exposition, strong community interest kept the Japanese Tea Pavilion open for thirty years within Balboa Park, San Diego's Culture Center. With the development of San Diego's Sister City relationship with Yokohama in 1950, forty years of gift exchanges followed, kindling feelings of shared ideals represented by the Japanese Garden.