Steve and I were excited to return to San Antonio to see more than we had in 2020. It was even better this time because we had our fabulous guide and dear friend Jacki. First up was breakfast at Duck Donuts, then the Japanese Tea Garden San Antonio and after that a stroll along the Riverwalk.
Maple Bacon Duck Donuts
Entering The Japanese Tea Garden San Antonio
On our way to the exquisite Japanese Tea Garden in San Antonio we introduced Jacki and her family to Duck Donuts. Her grandchildren’s eyes were as wide as saucers when they saw that they could choose their own donut toppings. We, of course, stuck with our tried and true favorite Maple Bacon Donuts. As I’m sure you have guessed, Duck Donuts is our favorite donut shop in the country. We love that they keep opening new stores so we can get our donut fix when the craving strikes!
Geraniums lead the way to the pagoda
It was a glorious spring day and perfect for outdoor sightseeing. The Japanese Tea Garden, also known as the Sunken Gardens, was the perfect spot for exploration on that balmy sunny April day.
Lush beauty everywhere you look!
The beautifully restored garden features a colorful garden with shaded walkways, craggy stone bridges, a 60-foot waterfall and ponds filled with huge Koi.
Shady respite under the pagoda roof.
The attraction was developed on land donated to the city of San Antonio in 1899 by George Washington Brackenridge. Brackenridge was president of the San Antonio Water Works Company at the time. The land was originally the site of a limestone quarry on the Rock Quarry Road.
Inside the pagoda is a perfect spot for a photo op!
Around 1917, Ray Lambert, the City Parks Commissioner, visualized an oriental-style garden in the pit of the quarry. Plans were developed and paid for with donations. In 1918 Lambert took advantage of free prison laborers who would shape the quarry into a network of walkways, stone arch bridges, an island and a Japanese pagoda.
Colorful koi swim in the green water lagoon in front of hilly paths and gardens.
In 1919 the city invited Kimi Eizo Jingu, a local Japanese-American artist, to move to the garden. A few years later, in 1926, the Bamboo Room opened, where light lunches and tea were sold. “Kimi and Miyoshi Jingu maintained the garden, lived in the park, and raised eight children. Kimi was a representative of the Shizuoka Tea Association and was considered an expert in the tea business nationally. He died in 1938, and in 1941 the family was evicted with the rise of anti-Japanese sentiment of World War II.”
Great place for a stroll!
During World War II, the garden was renamed the Chinese Tea Garden in order to prevent the destruction and vandalism of the tea garden, because other cities were experiencing that at their Japanese tea gardens. San Antonio restored the name to its original in 1984 with a ceremony that was attended by Jingu’s children and representatives of the Japanese government,
View from above the Japanese Tea Garden
On the Japanese Tea Garden website a good bit of history is told by one of Kimi Jingu’s daughters. I’m happy to share a few charming paragraphs here. But if you want to learn more, feel free to visit the website using the links below.
Meet Madison and Micah, Jacki’s grandkids
THE JAPANESE TEA GARDEN: MY HOME MABEL JINGU ENKOJI
Shades of Green and Pops of Red
“I was born in San Antonio, Texas in 1925 in a house in Brackenridge Park with a Japanese Tea Garden. My father helped the city design this beautiful garden with lily ponds and gold fish, rock walk ways and bridges. The Portland cement company used the quarry for their use, and then when they abandoned it, the city decided to use it for public use and a garden was built. Most of the quarry rocks were used to create the edge of the ponds and walkways in the garden which was built in the abandoned rock quarry. A two story home built out of the rocks from the quarry was built on the property and our parents, Mr. & Mrs. Kimi Jingu were asked to live there. My mother and father had 2 children, Mary and Ruth, when the city asked them to live in the house and the first one born at the house in the park was Rae, named after the park commissioner, Ray Lambert. When my parents realized the name Ray was a name for a man, they found out that the spelling for a female was Rae. All together, there were six girls, Mary Yuriko,,Ruth Emiko,Rae Sayoko, Helen Eiko, Mabel Yoshiko, and Lillian Isoko, and two boys, James Eiichi and Kimi. Eizo My mother said she gave us all bible names, but as you read them, I think she gave some us non-bible names, like Rae, who was named after the first park commissioner, Ray Lambert, when they first moved into the house in the garden.
Reflections of beauty
After my folks moved into the house, my father designed a tea room with split bamboo he placed on the walls and he painted four watercolors and placed them in the ceilings framing them in split bamboo. (all of the bamboo was harvested from the garden, split and burnished by my father.) That became a tea room where green and black tea was served to guests. My father became a representative of the Japan Tea Association and imported large 50 pound wooden boxes of tea. I remember that all the boxes had beautiful silkscreened Japanese prints on them. So, they served tea to all the tourists that came to the garden and soon my father sold the tea in beautiful lacquered canisters. One of the teas that became quite popular was the Japanese powdered green tea, which in Japan was used as a ceremonial tea. This tea had a very bitter taste and not something he could serve to the people coming to the tea room, so he developed a cold iced green tea with a tablespoon of sugar and filled the glass with ice and a slice of lemon. Then an ice cream was created with the powdered green tea and the local Bordens ice cream company made this ice cream to be served. I am surprised that this green tea ice cream is now a very popular ice cream.
60-foot high waterfall trickles down the limestone wall.
Our garden that was developed in an abandoned rock quarry and next to our quarry was another quarry nearby which eventually became an open air theatre used for plays and operettas. Since the theatre was in such close proximity to our house, we went to bed hearing all the music of the operettas and many times we were allowed to sit on the railing at the theatre by the orchestra on the evenings they would practice. And in the daytime, I would go there with my sister, Lillian, and we would dance and play on the stage. After all, it was right down the path from our house. What a wonderful memory, to have the whole park as our play ground. There was a large zoo on the other side of our house, so we would run down this lane (that we called “lovers lane”) to the zoo. The first cages at that part of the zoo were the lions and tigers. Sometimes, we would hear the roar of the lions before it was their feeding time. I would go down at feeding time and watch a zoo worker called Joe feed the lions and tigers, and then go to the next cages where the monkeys and chimpanzees were. My favorite cage was where the gorilla was kept. Sometimes, I would stand in front oof his cage, he would jump up and down and then make a lot of noise jumping on the cage where I was standing. The gorilla’s name was Jerry. One time one of the smaller monkies must have gotten out of a cage, and came to our house. ( home was part of Brackenridge Park, next to the zoo) I was so surprised to see a monkey standing outside at one of our bedroom doors. I opened the door and gave him a stick of chewing gum. After that, when I would go to the zoo and he would see me at his cage, he would move his mouth and make faces like he was chewing gum!”
Perky pansies showing off their pretty faces.
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