Japanese Tea Garden

What you need to know

History

The Japanese Tea Garden was built for the 1894 California Midwinter International Exposition in Golden Gate Park. The original concession was constructed by Australian-born George Turner Marsh, who hired Japanese craftsmen. After the fair, the city kept the garden and brought on Makoto Hagiwara to manage it. It’s the oldest public Japanese garden in the United States.

Hagiwara expanded and tended the garden from 1895 until his death in 1925. He’s also credited with introducing the American-style fortune cookie at the garden’s tea house in the early 1900s, adapting it from the Japanese tsujiura senbei. After his death, his daughter Takano Hagiwara and her children continued running the garden until 1942, when the family was forcibly removed during Japanese American internment. They never returned. A plaque near the entrance acknowledges this history. The road bordering the garden was renamed Hagiwara Tea Garden Drive in 1986.

What to See

The garden covers about three acres of paths and small wooden buildings. Plantings include Japanese maples, sculpted pines, azaleas, and cherry trees, which bloom in March and April. The Drum Bridge (Taiko Bashi), a steep wooden arc over the koi pond, is the garden’s most-photographed structure. The five-story pagoda dates from the original 1894 exposition.

The tea house serves Japanese green tea and small snacks at tables overlooking the garden.

Visiting

Address: 75 Hagiwara Tea Garden Drive, Golden Gate Park

Hours: Mar 1-Oct 31: 9am to 5:30pm. Nov 1-Feb 28: 9am to 4:30pm.

Cost: $15 adult non-residents, $7 non-resident seniors and youth (12-17), $3 non-resident children (5-11). Under 4 free. San Francisco residents free with valid ID. Free entry for everyone Monday, Wednesday, and Friday from 9am to 10am.

The de Young Museum and California Academy of Sciences are both about a two-minute walk away across the Music Concourse.

Getting There

The N-Judah light rail stops at 9th Avenue and Irving, a 10-minute walk into the park to the garden entrance. The 44 O’Shaughnessy bus stops at the Music Concourse, next to the garden. Free parking is available in the Music Concourse Garage on weekdays. On weekends the garage fills early; Muni is the more reliable option.