Room No. 3

A Japanese Gift to the United States

After the close of the World’s Columbian Exposition, the Chicago fair site reverted to parkland as Jackson Park. This required the removal of the monumental assembly of exhibition buildings, although an exception was made for the Hō-ō-den, which stood on the scenic Wooded Island. Intended from the time of its initial construction, the pavilion was a permanent gift that the Japanese government left to the city.

The gifting represented a significant diplomatic gesture for both the giver and recipient. Gozo Tateno, the Japanese Minister in Washington DC, used his nation’s displays as evidence of Japan’s progress and prosperity. He urged the United States to recognize Japan’s worthiness as a political, cultural, and economic equal as the latter lobbied for a revision of the unequal treaties originally signed in the 1850s between the two nations.

American architect and critic P. B. Wight voiced his appreciation of the Hō-ō-den for its historical authenticity and traditional craftsmanship, noting that his fellow designers had much to learn from its artistry. The diminutive size of the Japanese pavilion and its unpainted woodwork allowed it to blend seamlessly with the naturalistic greenery and water features of the Wooded Island, originally envisioned by the landscape designer Frederick Law Olmsted as a respite zone free of buildings (he conceded to the Japanese imposition as the best possible compromise).

The Hō-ō-den Destroyed by Fires

Despite serving as a symbol of good will between Japan and the United States, the Hō-ō-den did not fare well in Jackson Park. By 1933, “vandals and souvenir hunters” had ravaged the structure to the extent that few of the original panels within the interior remained intact. After Chicago held another world’s fair in 1933, bringing another opportunity for attention to Japanese culture through national display, restoration of the Hō-ō-den at long last took place. Completed in 1935, the reactivated pavilion and surrounding garden flourished as a concession and scenic retreat.

The structure fell into disrepair once again after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941. Numerous other Japanese pavilions and gardens in the United States were similarly neglected during wartime due to resource shortages as well as anti-Japanese sentiments (for example, the Japanese House at the Huntington and the Japanese Tea Garden in San Antonio).

After the war, two separate fires broke out in 1946, on June 21 and October 12, that ultimately destroyed the Hō-ō-den. The cause of the first fire was unknown, whereas the cause of the second was arson.

Remains of the
Hō-ō-den Discovered

Part 1

Decades after fires destroyed the structure, fragments of the Hō-ō-den resurfaced in unlikely places.

In 1973, four transom panels, known as ranma in Japanese, were discovered in storage under the bleachers of Soldier Field Stadium. The panels have been conserved and partially restored and are now on permanent display at the Art Institute of Chicago. See the narration of the discovery, separation, and reunion of the four ranma.

The ranma are described in the 1893 illustrated catalog of the Japanese Pavilion as “elaborate carvings of phoenixes” by Professor Takamura Kōun of the Tokyo Fine Art School.

Remains of the
Hō-ō-den Discovered

Part 2

In 2015, three of the original painted sliding doors, known as fusuma in Japanese, were discovered in a Chicago Park District storage facility. Just like the transom panels, they feature auspicious bird imagery, described in the 1893 illustrated catalog of the Japanese Pavilion as “male and female phoenixes at play with their young” painted by Professor Hashimoto Gahō of the Tokyo Fine Art School.

The fusuma panels, along with the ranma panels, are now part of the permanent collection of the Art Institute of Chicago.

See the curator Janice Katz’s narration of the discovery and identification of the panels.

The Wooded Island as Lasting Celebration of Japanese Art

By 1960, no trace of the original Hō-ō-den and surrounding garden remained on the Wooded Island, except for a single stone lantern. Efforts to restore the garden were initiated in 1960, and again throughout the 1970s. On 21 June 1981, Chicago mayor Jane Byrne, Japanese Consul General Yoshinao Odaka, and Park District Superintendent Edmund Kelly presided over the dedication ceremony for the renovated garden.

In recognition of the 20th anniversary of the sister city relationship between Chicago and Osaka, the garden was renamed Osaka Garden in 1993. Most recently, in 2013, the name changed once again, to the Garden of the Phoenix to mark the 120th anniversary of the gifting of the Hō-ō-den to the American city.

In addition to restoring the garden, the non-profit Garden of the Phoenix Foundation planted 120 cherry trees in Jackson Park in 2013 to mark the anniversary of the original erection of the Hō-ō-den. On the site of the now-lost pavilion, the organization commissioned a sculpture titled Sky Landing, installed by Japanese-American artist and musician Yoko Ono in 2016.

While the 1893 Hō-ō-den offered a didactic history lesson on Japan (it showcased a millennium of historical progress through changing cultural-political regimes and attendant transitions in architectural features and artistic styles), the gardens and artwork that have replaced it on the Wooded Island after 1946 do not make reference to specific times, politics, or regions of Japan. They present instead a neutralized, timeless Japan that is visually distinct from mainstream Euro-American aesthetics.

A Phoenix Hall Replica in Hawaii

Another replica of Japan’s Hōōdō (Phoenix Hall) of the Byōdōin temple complex was created in the United States, this time in 1968 in Hawaii to celebrate the centenary of the arrival of the first Japanese immigrants to this state.

Named the Byodo-in Temple, it is a reduced-scale, reinforced-concrete replica of the Phoenix Hall located in the Valley of the Temples Memorial Park on the island of Oahu. In imitation of the 11th-century Japanese original, the building houses an Amida Buddha sculpture as its main icon. However, the Hawaiian Phoenix Hall is non-denominational, welcomes worship and meditation, and hosts weddings and events. It frequently appears in television shows and movies as Hawaiian scenery, and at times acts as a stand-in for Japan or Asia at large (in the 2004–2010 television drama Lost, it was the setting of a wealthy Korean businessman’s estate).

The Byodo-in Temple, like the Hō-ō-den, functions as a general signifier of Japanese architecture and culture in the United States and celebrates an ongoing cultural connection between the two countries. It is one of several replica Japanese monuments in Hawaii. Others include the Izumo Taishakyo Mission (1923) inspired by the form of the Izumo Grand Shrine, the pavilion at Kyoto Gardens Kinkaku-ji (1966) inspired by the Kinkakuji (Golden Pavilion), and the Makiki Christian Church (1931) inspired by the Himeji Castle.