Parking

Our Fairmount Park series continues this week with a look at the Japanese House and Gardens, also known as Shofuso or the Pine Breeze Villa. The House and garden are located in Western Fairmount Park on the Horticulture Center grounds, just off Lansdowne Avenue. The Villa is only open from April through September. In order to tour the garden and house, you do have to pay an admission fee, but compared to other museums and such in this city, it is relatively cheap: $6 for adults, $3 for students/seniors, and free for members. And the price of admission is totally worth it.

Once you get into the garden, you're handed a self-guided tour folder, which explains what the rooms in the house are as well as the specifics of a Japanese tea ceremony. The garden part features a little stream with a waterfall and koi fish swimming around. You can ask at the admissions desk for some food to feed the fish with. However, the tour states that it is considered "unkind" to call the fish for feeding and then not actually feed them, so make sure that if you're looking at them and waving your arms around, you actually have something to give them. They'll swim up to the surface, little fish mouth's bobbing in expectation. Towards the back of the garden is a bridge leading to a small island. Unfortunately, the bridge is roped off with a sign reading "Staff Only Beyond This Point," so you can't actually cross it. A statue of the Buddha is in the far corner of the garden.

The house that is currently in the garden was built in Nagoya in 1953 and designed by Yoshimura Junzoo. The house is a Shoin-zukuri Japanese house and has a teahouse in the back. Originally, it was presented to the Museum of Modern Art in New York for an exhibition 1954-55. In 1958, it was given to Philadelphia, and rebuilt in Fairmount Park. In honor of the Bicentennial in 1976, the House and Garden underwent repairs. In 1982, the Friends of the Japanese House and Garden was formed to help preserve and maintain the garden and house. The admission fee goes towards upkeep of the grounds.