[photo credit: Storrier Stearns Japanese Garden]
The Storrier Stearns Japanese Garden will host the 7th Annual Pasadena Festival of Tea on Sunday, April 12, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., offering visitors a chance to sample teas from multiple Asian traditions in one of Southern California’s rarest historic settings.
The festival brings together local vendors specializing in Japanese, Chinese, Taiwanese, and Indian teas, according to an announcement from the garden. A Matcha Café hosted by Shingo Murayama of TTT will serve ceremonial-grade matcha, and ceramic tea wares by local artists will be available.
For a limited number of guests, tea practitioner Mikko Nakatomi will conduct traditional Japanese tea ceremony demonstrations in the garden’s Niko-an teahouse. Registration for these demonstrations has sold out in prior years.
The garden, at 270 Arlington Drive, is the only intact example of a major Japanese-style garden created before World War II for a residence in Southern California. Landscape designer Kinzuchi Fujii built it between 1935 and 1940 for Charles and Ellamae Storrier Stearns. Fujii was sent to an internment camp in 1942 and never returned to see his completed work.
The site was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2005 and restored from 2007 to 2013 under the direction of landscape architect Dr. Takeo Uesugi. Current owners Jim and Connie Haddad operate it as a nonprofit.
The garden’s gift shop, Takara-ten, will offer antique and vintage items and Japanese treasures during the festival.
Kendall Brown, a professor of Asian art history who nominated the garden for historic status, once described it as “one of the best pre-war examples of a Japanese hill and pond style stroll garden outside of Japan.”
Registration details and pricing are expected to be announced on the garden’s website, www.japanesegardenpasadena.com. Free parking is available at 355 W. State Street, at the corner of South Orange Grove Drive and West State Street, with a short walk north to the garden on Arlington Drive. The garden is wheelchair accessible. For more information, contact the garden at (626) 399-1721.
The 7th Annual Pasadena Festival of Tea will be held Sunday, April 12, 2026, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Admission pricing and registration details are expected to be announced on the garden’s website; previous festivals have charged $20 per person with children 12 and under admitted free. The festival takes place at the Storrier Stearns Japanese Garden, 270 Arlington Drive, Pasadena, CA 91105. Free parking is available at 355 W. State Street, at the corner of South Orange Grove Drive and West State Street, a short walk north to the garden. For more information, call (626) 399-1721 or visit www.japanesegardenpasadena.com.
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