Sustained by Tradition: Japanese Heritage Shōya House Moves to The Huntington

An important addition to the botanical collections, the Yokois’ historic home celebrates the agricultural roots of ornamental landscape design. In addition to the main house, the courtyard garden—featuring more than 820 stones and large rocks collected by Yokoi ancestors over the centuries from neighboring islands around the Seto Inland Sea—is being reconstructed at The Huntington. The walled garden will include a dry streambed, koi pond, stone bridge, stone lanterns, and a hand-washing basin. A second basin is located along the garden’s perimeter. Over $11 million has been donated to support the project.

The Japanese Heritage Shōya House will join the iconic Japanese Garden and the newly expanded Chinese Garden as one of the focal points of the Center for East Asian Garden Studies, which oversees The Huntington’s educational outreach programs to promote a deeper understanding and appreciation of East Asian culture. The Huntington’s celebration of Japanese culture began in 1911, when the Japanese Garden was built and the 19th-century Japanese House was acquired (a restoration of the latter was completed in 2013). The cultural conversation continued with the addition of the bonsai court in 1968 and a ceremonial teahouse in 2010.

The Yokoi family offered their historic home to The Huntington in 2016. Generations of the family lived in the beloved house, including Akira, a 19th-generation descendant. “I was raised in the house and lived there for over 10 years, during grammar school and middle school,” he says. Following the death of his grandmother, the last inhabitant, the house remained unoccupied for three decades.