Shofuso Japanese House and Garden

Japanese House
Bright blue sky over the Japanese House.
Alternative names	Shofuso
General information
Architectural style	Shoin-Zukuri (17th Century)
Address	Horticultural and Lansdowne Drs. West Fairmount Park
Town or city	Philadelphia
Country	United States
Coordinates	39°58′53″N 75°12′47″W / 39.9814°N 75.213°W / 39.9814; -75.213Coordinates: 39°58′53″N 75°12′47″W / 39.9814°N 75.213°W / 39.9814; -75.213
Opened	1954 (1954)
Relocated	1958
Renovated	1976
Design and construction
Architect	Junzo Yoshimura
Other designers	Heizaemon Ito, 11th (Master carpenter)

Shofuso's garden
Bright haze looking at the waterfall from the Tea Garden
Location	Horticultural and Lansdowne Drs. West Fairmount Park, Philadelphia, United States
Coordinates	39°58′53″N 75°12′47″W / 39.9814°N 75.213°W / 39.9814; -75.213
Area	1.2 acres
Created	1958 (1958)
Designer	Tansai Sano
Operated by	Friends of the Japanese House and Garden
Visitors	18,000
Open	April through October
Designation	National Register of Historic Places

Shofuso (Pine Breeze Villa), (Japanese: 松風荘) also known as Japanese House and Garden, is a traditional 17th century-style Japanese house and garden now located in Philadelphia's West Fairmount Park on the site of the Centennial Exposition of 1876. Shofuso is a nonprofit historic site with over 18,000 visitors each year and is open to the public for visitation, group tours, and event rentals.

Shofuso was built in 1953 as a gift from Japan to American citizens, to symbolize post-war peace and friendship between the two countries. The building was constructed using traditional Japanese techniques and materials imported from Japan, and was originally exhibited in the courtyard of Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York. After two years, it was relocated to Philadelphia and reconstructed in 1958. In 1976, a major restoration was conducted by a cadre of Japanese artisans in preparation for the American Bicentennial celebration. In 2007, the internationally acclaimed artist Hiroshi Senju created and donated an interior installation of twenty waterfall murals, creating an elegant combination of contemporary Japanese painting in traditional architecture with sixty years of patina.

Shofuso is owned by the city of Philadelphia and has been administered, maintained, preserved, and operated by the Friends of the Japanese House and Garden, a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization, since 1982.

MoMA initiated their series of "House in the Garden" exhibitions in the courtyard of the Museum in 1949. Architectural director Philip Johnson and curator Arthur Drexler recognized the correspondence between "modernism" in the Western house and traditional Japanese architecture and proposed to build a Japanese house as the third exhibit of the series.

John D. Rockefeller III, then-president of the Japan Society (New York), and MoMA curator Arthur Drexler visited Japan in February 1953 to meet with the business leaders of Japan and to request their support for the project. The Japan-America Society (JAS) agreed to sponsor the project, and declared that the Japanese House should be donated by Japan as a gift to American people in order to promote the cultural exchange. Sponsored by both the private sector and the government, the JAS raised a total of ¥18.5 million($51,000 at the exchange rate of ¥360/$ in 1953) from 270 corporations and individuals. The National Forestry Agency of Japan granted special permission to harvest the wood, particularly "hinoki" cypress wood which was in short supply.