SHOFUSO CULTURAL CENTER OPENS SATURDAY
The house and garden at Shofuso Japanese Cultural Center, a hidden gem in Philadelphia’s Fairmount Park, will open for the season on Saturday, in time for cherry blossom season. The site will be open for visitation Wednesdays through Sundays, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., through Dec. 12.
New for 2021, visitors will see the just-completed Pebble Beach alongside the central pond. Based on newly discovered 1957 drawings made by Shofuso’s original garden designer, Tansai Sano, Shofuso brought to life a traditional Suhama Pebble Beach on the garden’s boat-landing shoreline.
This archetypal Japanese Garden motif invokes the spirit of the pebble strewn shorelines of Kyoto’s Kamo River and the rocky coasts of Japan by incorporating elegantly designed stretches of pebbled beach along a garden pond’s lowest contours.
Every year when the cherry trees bloom in early April, friends and family gather under the blossoms to have flowerviewing picnics, called Ohanami in Japan. Philadelphia Cherry Blossom Ohanami maps are available at Shofuso. Also new for 2021, Japanese artist Hiro Sakaguchi handpainted a new map of Philadelphia Cherry Blossom Ohanami, helping visitors find cherry blossoms throughout Fairmount Park as well as other spots around Philadelphia.
Sakaguchi was born in Nagano, Japan, and moved to the United States in the 1990s to study art at the University of the Arts and Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. The map will be available for pick-up at Shofuso and sold as a 14-by-21-inch poster in the gift shop.
A Virtual Marketplace where vendors sell Japanese or Japan-inspired goods and services will be open through April 18.
Health and safety protocols including capacity limits, mask wearing and social distancing will be in place.
Shofuso is located at Horticultural and Lansdowne drives. Adult admission is $12; senior citizens, students with ID and children ages 5-17 admission is $8; ACCESS card holders’ admission is $2; and JASGP members, active duty military with ID and children under 5 are admitted free.
For more information, including special hours, advance ticket purchases, and upcoming special events, visit japanphilly. org.