Japanese Tea Gardens

The San Antonio Japanese Tea Gardens were designed and built in the 1920s in an abandoned limestone quarry.

City officials from San Antonio enlisted the help of Kimi Eizo Jingu, a Japanese master gardener and inventor of green tea ice cream, to help design and build the gardens. As thanks to Jingu, San Antonio city officials invited him to move into a house on the gardens property.

After Jingu died in 1938, his wife continued to reside in the house until she was evicted after the bombing of Pearl Harbor because of anti-Japanese sentiment. San Antonio city officials then changed the name of the gardens to the Chinese Sunken Gardens.

In 1984, the name of the garden was changed to Japanese Tea Gardens-Sunken Gardens, and efforts are now being made to restore the gardens to their original glory by including more Japanese influence.

Visitors to the Japanese Tea Gardens-Sunken Gardens can take part in appreciating the beauty of Japanese gardening, which includes a variety of plants and trees which grow among the limestone rocks and pools of water.

The Japanese Tea Gardens-Sunken Gardens is free to the public and is located in Breckenridge Park at 3800 North St. Mary's Street. For more information, call 210-821-3120.

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