With its tranquil pine forests, 200 acre Morikami Park is a well-loved landmark in Delray Beach, Florida. The park includes the only museum in the United States dedicated exclusively to the living culture of Japan. It also offers Japanese style gardens, nature trails, sparkling lakes and ponds teeming with colorful carp and turtles, cascading waterfalls, shaded picnic pavilions and a rare bonsai collection of miniature trees.

The Morikami Museum and Japanese Gardens opened in 1977, with a gift of land from George Sukeji Morikami. Mr. Morikami emigrated from Miyazu, Japan in the early 1900s as a member of the Yamato Colony, an agricultural community settled by Japanese farming families in Boca Raton. The original museum building, now called the Yamato-kan, is modeled after a Japanese residence and features a permanent exhibition chronicling the history of the Yamato Colony.

In 1993, a 32,000 square foot museum building was added. The new museum features expansive galleries where varying exhibitions of Japanese arts, crafts and artifacts are displayed. It also contains the Seishin-an teahouse with regularly scheduled demonstrations of the Japanese tea ceremony, a 225 seat theater offering lectures and performing arts, the IBM Infotronic Gallery multimedia resource center and the Cornell Cafe serving Japanese and Asian lunches.