Japanese Gardens

The Japanese Garden is a 7.5-acre section of the Birmingham Botanical Gardens that was dedicated on May 6, 1967.

Working with several patrons, architect Darcey Tatum engaged Japanese-American architect Masaji "Buffy" Murai to create a garden design for the 7 1/2-acre triangular end of the park closest to Mountain Brook Village.

A major earth-moving project brought 600 tons of rock from Oak Mountain and excavated an artificial lake with a picturesque island surrounded by sculpted, mounded earth with curving paths. Senator [[John Sparkman[[ was able to secure the gift of a tea house from the 1965 New York World's Fair from the Japanese Trade Association. Sent to retrieve it from New York, architect Fritz Woehle found the building at the center of a tax dispute. He and his helpers quietly dissassembled the pegged-wooden structure and trucked it to Birmingham where it was carefully reassembled.

The opening of the new attraction, on May 6, 1967, was attended by the Japanese Ambassador to the United States and was accompanied by the Birmingham Festival of Arts salute to Japan.