A redesigned plaza surrounds the landmark five-story pagoda in the Japanese Tea Garden of San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park.
The upgraded plaza builds on the restoration of the 109-year-old pagoda completed in 2022, the San Francisco Recreation and Park Department said in a news release.
The plaza is the work of Japanese garden designer Hoichi Kurisu, according to the park department. Seven 60-year-old Japanese black pines cultivated by Kurisu and his family are planted in the plaza.
Tatsuyama stone, used as a building material in Japan for more than 1,700 years, was donated by Matsushita Stonemason Co. Ltd., with support from the National Chamber of Commerce of Japan, for the base of the pagoda and lanterns across the plaza.
The redesign added a space behind the pagoda for contemplation and for observing the moss growing behind the Japanese cryptomeria grove, according to the park department.
The redesign removed fencing surrounding the pagoda and added a path from the main gate to a terrace with views of the bronze Buddha statue and the Hagiwara Gate. Another path was added through the Sunken Garden.
The plaza was designed by Hoichi Kurisu “to allow visitors to experience a sense of calmness; to realize we are unified through humanity; and to contemplate forgiveness, joy, and peace.”
“The Japanese Tea Garden is one of Golden Gate Park’s most revered gardens and it is the oldest public Japanese Garden in the nation,” Phil Ginsburg, the Recreation and Park Department’s general manager, said in the news release.
The plaza was designed “to allow visitors to experience a sense of calmness; to realize we are unified through humanity; and to contemplate forgiveness, joy, and peace,” Kurisu said in the release.
Carpentry, roofing and masonry restoration of the five-story pagoda was performed by the park department’s structural maintenance crew from 2020 to 2022.
Rotted wood in the pagoda’s interior and exterior was replaced with redwood salvaged from water tanks at Camp Mather. Park carpenters created a new spire from a recycled Douglas fir flagpole adorned with traditional bells and an ornamental finial made in Niigata, Japan.
The pagoda was built as a temporary indoor display in the 1915 Panama Pacific International Exposition’s Palace of Food Products. It was moved to the Japanese Tea Garden in 1916.
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