Morikami Museum and Japanese Gardens
Slip off your shoes and enter a serene Japanese garden that dates from 1905, when an entrepreneurial farmer, Jo Sakai, came to Boca Raton to build a tropical agricultural community. The Yamato Colony, as it was known, was short-lived; by the 1920s, only one tenacious colonist remained: George Sukeji Morikami. But Morikami was quite successful, eventually running one of the largest pineapple plantations in the area. The 200-acre Morikami Museum and Japanese Gardens, which opened to the public in 1977, was Morikami’s gift to Palm Beach County and the state of Florida. The museum is devoted specifically to the acquisition, research, preservation, and exhibition of the story of Sukeji George Morikami and the Yamato Colony as well as the visual culture created by Japanese and Japanese Americans. The result of this effort over more than 40 years is not just a catalog of objects, but rather a collection of diverse ideas and unique stories illuminated by the objects. Fans of Japanese anime love it here, and you will likely see a lot of anime cosplay around the museum and gardens. A stroll through the garden is almost a mile long. An artificial waterfall that cascades into a koi- and carp-filled moat; a small rock garden for meditation; and a large bonsai collection with miniature maple, buttonwood, juniper, and Australian pine trees are all worth contemplation. There’s also a café, are fun events here, including films, lectures, walks, tea ceremonies, flower arranging classes, fabric wrapping, and Zen garden raking.
4000 Morikami Park Rd., Delray Beach. 📞 561/495-0233. www.morikami.org. . .
Slip off your shoes and enter a serene Japanese garden that dates from 1905, when an entrepreneurial farmer, Jo Sakai, came to Boca Raton to build a tropical agricultural community. The Yamato Colony, as it was known, was short-lived; by the 1920s, only one tenacious colonist remained: George Sukeji Morikami. But Morikami was quite successful, eventually running one of the largest pineapple plantations in the area. The 200-acre Morikami Museum and Japanese Gardens, which opened to the public in 1977, was Morikami’s gift to Palm Beach County and the state of Florida. The museum is devoted specifically to the acquisition, research, preservation, and exhibition of the story of Sukeji George Morikami and the Yamato Colony as well as the visual culture created by Japanese and Japanese Americans. The result of this effort over more than 40 years is not just a catalog of objects, but rather a collection of diverse ideas and unique stories illuminated by the objects. Fans of Japanese anime love it here, and you will likely see a lot of anime cosplay around the museum and gardens. A stroll through the garden is almost a mile long. An artificial waterfall that cascades into a koi- and carp-filled moat; a small rock garden for meditation; and a large bonsai collection with miniature maple, buttonwood, juniper, and Australian pine trees are all worth contemplation. There’s also a café, are fun events here, including films, lectures, walks, tea ceremonies, flower arranging classes, fabric wrapping, and Zen garden raking.
4000 Morikami Park Rd., Delray Beach. 📞 561/495-0233. www.morikami.org. . .
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