10/14/2025
Found serenity in the heart of San Antonio 🌸 The Japanese Tea Garden feels like stepping into a living painting. The lush greenery, koi ponds, and the sound of waterfalls reminding me to slow down and breathe. Entirely free to the public with an amazing restaurant.
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I was so moved by the artistry of this garden that I reached out to learn about its history. The Japanese Tea Garden, San Antonio- is a quarry-turned oasis after many years of neglect, within time nature found its way until it was restored.
What is now the garden, use to stand an old limestone quarry built by the Alamo until the Park Commissioner Ray Lambert proposed it be turned into a lily pond to restore biodiversity in the area. It was then commissioned in 1918 to be built my prison labor. In 1926, city officials offered the Jingu family to live onsite and run The Bamboo Room teahouse. They had a beautiful vision for what it could do to bring more life, biodiversity and beauty to the city wanting it to be shared by the community and what they accomplished was beyond their dreams. For over 10 years the tea room and gardens flourished and was beloved by locals even after the passing of the visionary, Kimi Jingu.
Unfortunately after Pearl Harbor in 1941, it was lost to wartime prejudice, the remaining Jingu family was evicted, and the name was changed to the Chinese Gardens and later neglected for many years.
It wasn’t until 1983 when the San Antonio City Council voted to restore the name, culture and honor of the Jingu families efforts in building this garden. A ceremony was held where Jingu family members attended and representatives of the Japanese Government. Only 4 years after this beautiful rehabilitation of Japanese culture, was the birth of a friendship, a sister city, Kumamoto Japan. The city gifted San Antonio the Kumamoto En Garden to symbolize renewed friendship and reconciliation between Japan and San Antonio after WWII.
I believe every garden I visit holds the lingering spirit of the ones who built and nourished it. To learn this history makes me hopeful that the balance between nature and humans will always find its way to heal, reconcile after neglect and flourish once more.