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(bright classical music) - [Narrator] "Travels and Traditions" with Burt Wolf is a classic travel journal, a record of Burt's search for information about our world, and how we fit into it.

Burt travels to the source of each story, trying to find the connections between our history and what is happening today.

What he discovers can improve our lives, and our understanding of the world around us.

(soft Japanese folk music) - In 1868, large numbers of Japanese began immigrating to the United States.

They were leaving Japan because it had entered a state of economic slowdown, and they were looking for a better life, and so they headed to Hawaii.

During the early 1900s, they began moving to California where they were particularly successful in farming.

(Japanese folk music) In that same year, the isolationist policies of the Japanese government ended, and Japan embarked on a new era.

Japan was open for business, and in the process, new technologies and ideas were introduced.

The Japanese government began sending envoys to countries around the world.

They wanted to bring back information about technology and scientific innovations.

(soft Japanese folk music) - The origins of the Yamato colony started with Jo Sakai, who came here to get his bachelor's at NYU in business.

He had hoped to meet Thomas Edison, who used bamboo filaments in his light bulbs from Japan.

And so Mr.

Sakai was hoping that this was a business venture.

It did not work out.

But he did find that they might be looking for people to work in Florida.

(soft piano music) - [Burt] After graduating in 1903, he set out to start working on his idea for the development of an agricultural settlement.

His colony would be different from the other Japanese colonies in the US, which were based on a tenant farming system.

His vision was to have the settlers be landowners rather than laborers.

He went to Florida and met with the governor and the president of the Model Land Company, which was a subsidiary of Henry Flagler's, Florida East Coast Railway.

The Florida leaders were interested in the prospect of introducing new crops, and innovating farming techniques to the state.

Sakai returned to Japan and started recruiting settlers and investors for his new business.

In 1904, some adventurous young men traveled to Florida with him to establish the new community, which they called the Yamato Colony.

In the summer of 1905, land was cleared and the colony was established at its permanent site in Boca Raton.

He was joined by other Japanese families who grew winter vegetables and, for a time, pineapples.

However, the competition from the Cuban farmers and a blight affecting the pineapples forced them to focus on other crops.

The produce was shipped by rail car, and in 1906, a Yamato train depot was built by the Florida East Coast Railway.

His vision of growing Japanese crops in Florida, like tea plant rice and mulberry trees for silk cultivation, failed due to the sandy soil and the humid climate of Florida.

The first group of settlers were ambitious men that helped lay the foundation of the colony and work the fields.

He knew that families would be essential to the success of growing and sustaining the colony.

Soon after the establishment of the Yamato colony, he renewed his efforts to bring families to South Florida, families that would help develop the community.

In 1907, he returned to Japan and married Sada Kawashima.

Other couples followed him, including his younger brother.

- They were true, true pioneers, and that they came from a completely different culture and different land to a place where there were no cell phones, there was no internet.

So just through black and white photos, they saw what they were coming to.

They had no idea, actually.

- [Burt] Life was simple.

They used water towers, outhouse, kerosene lamps, and a horse-drawn wagon for transportation during their days off.

They cooked both Japanese and Western style foods.

They spent their time enjoying a variety of activities, like going to the beach, fishing, golfing, hunting, playing billiards, and having picnics.

- Generally, they would go down to the beach, or they would go down to what was called the mound, which was an old Yaga burial mound, and they would picnic there.

- The Yamato colonists were also involved with the community, especially the Delray Independence Day parade.

It gave the community an opportunity to share their Japanese heritage.

They created parade floats with themes that interested them, including a giant tomato.

Tomatoes were one of their primary crops.

They also had a replica for the gateway for Shinto shrine.

Yamato Village was never a large community.

About 140 people are known to have lived there from 1904 to 1942.

The population never numbered more than 35 households at any one time.

Although some families grew over the years, it was not how he envisioned it.

By the 1920s, several factors contributed to the decline of the Yamato colony.

First was the death of the founder.

In 1923, he died from tuberculosis.

His brother Henry took over the leadership role at Yamato.

At one point, Florida experienced a major real estate boom that attracted developers and speculators.

They offered large sums of money for underdeveloped land.

Some of the members of the Yamato colony sold their land and suddenly became wealthy.

Some of them returned to Japan, and some moved to the West Coast.

The bombing of Pearl Harbor resulted in the US declaration of war on Japan, which led to the internment of 120,000 Japanese and Japanese-Americans.

They were forced to leave exclusion zones from 1942 to 1946.

These camps were built to confine the internees who had been forced to leave their homes.

They were also prevented from bringing most of their possessions.

They were quickly evacuated to poorly built relocation centers.

The former Yamato residents who moved to the West Coast were interned at three different camps.

The end of the Yamato Village came with the order from federal Judge John W. Holland to award the US government immediate possession of the nearly 6,000 acres in and around the Yamato farm area for the creation of the Army Air Corps Technical Training Center, now called Boca Raton Airport.

- The government had asked them to move off the land, because they were gonna use that for the Boca Airfield.

They did maintain the Kamiya home, and some of the areas around it, some of the buildings for offices, but everything else was torn down and used basically also for practicing bombing, so there was not much left after that.

- [Burt] With this final move, the village of Yamato came to an end.

Although his grand vision of a thriving colony of Japanese farmers in Florida never quite came to fruition, the legacy of these pioneers lives on in the community.

- We were extremely fortunate in this area to be able to have the Yamato Colony come in and farm the land.

And while ultimately the farming experience did not successfully materialize years later, we did have a gentleman who came from Japan, George Morikami, who fell in love with our area.

We became his second home away from home, and he was able to amass the nearly 200 acres that the Morikami Museum and Japanese Gardens sits on.

(soft piano music) - [Burt] George was born on November 5th, 1886, in a coastal town near Kyoto, Japan.

A son of a farming family, he came to the Yamato Colony in 1906 at the age of 19 - [George] This is the building I had.

Oh.

That's the one.

My first house.

- Yeah, yeah.

(George laughing) - [George] I bought the house with five acres, you know.

And I lived there a couple of years.

- In exchange for the cost of his passage and a little bit of spending money, he agreed to work for three years, at the end of which he was to receive $500 and a little bit of land.

His plan was to sell the land, take the money, and head back to Japan.

But he never got the land, and he never got the money.

So he kept on working.

Eventually, he got enough money together to buy a small piece of land in Palm Beach County, which he farmed for 30 years.

(soft music) His business was successful until he lost his savings in the late 1920s during the bank failures and the collapse of the real estate market, George rebuilt his business as a fruit and vegetable wholesaler.

This time, instead of depositing his money in the banks, he invested in land.

In 1967, at the age of 80, George became an American citizen, - And as he was nearing the end of his life, he said, I want to gift to this area the land that I have amassed.

And he went back and forth between Delray and Palm Beach County trying to present his gift, and finally, finally, one of our county commissioners back in the early or mid 1970s, accepted his gracious gift.

What a lovely donation.

And the Palm Beach County Parks and Recreation Department has been able to step in and grow and expand in accordance with a master plan that has still wonderful elements to still come.

- [Burt] In 1973, he donated his 200 acre farm to Palm Beach County, who turned it into a center for Japanese arts and culture.

There are galleries with changing exhibits, a classic Japanese garden, a bonsai garden, and a gift shop.

Today, the Morikami Museum and Japanese Gardens is a center for Japanese art and culture.

The original museum building was designed to look like a Japanese villa.

It features a dry landscape garden and a permanent exhibition on the history of the colony.

- So we feel fortunate that there's a variety of wildlife that is- - Does that include me?

- Sure.

- Okay.

- Absolutely.

- I'm definitely wildlife (Bonnie laughs) - We feel very fortunate that there's a variety of wildlife here at the Morikami Museum and Japanese Gardens and different days, different times, you will find different species.

We find over 100 species of birds that actually come and nest in the park different times of the seasons.

We also have Florida bobcat, and a wide variety of animal nature here.

So we feel secure that they have an environment that they will be able to live in for years to come as well.

- [Burt] And you're growing some bamboo, I see.

- We do.

We have a specific bamboo garden in one area, and we have throughout the six distinct period gardens, we also have areas where we have bamboo as well.

It's a seven eighths of a mile walk through the gardens, and so people can do it at their leisure.

There's always some place to sit, whether it's a bench like we're on, or one of the larger boulders in one of the gardens.

People come and they read, they draw, they take photography.

There's, you know, pictures going on.

Everyone finds their passion here, and there's always a unique place where they can experience doing what makes them happy.

And no matter whether you're here on a day where it's rainy and drizzly, or the sun is out, or it's cool and in the 60s, or it's warmer and in the 80s, your experience is always a unique and wonderful one.

- Each year, the Morikami Museum hosts a number of Japanese related events.

A New Year's celebration in January, orchid weekend in February, Obon weekend in August, and sunset strolls throughout the spring and fall.

The Courtyard Garden has a permanent exhibition on the history of the Yamato Colony.

- So it's an all inclusive experience.

It's not just coming for one element, but people come here to take classes, to enjoy special events, to learn about our history, Japanese culture, art, music.

There's always something new going on.

There's always something exciting happening.

So it's a wealth of opportunities of experiences here.

(soft Japanese folk music) - [Burt] The Japanese gardens were designed to complement the museum.

The six gardens were inspired by famous garden styles throughout Japanese history.

- The Morikami Museum and Japanese Gardens is first and foremost a museum.

But we're fortunate that in 1999, we were able to break ground on six distinct period Japanese gardens.

So those are elements that are living exhibitions within the museum.

And when someone comes here, they have an opportunity not only to learn a little bit about our history, but also be able to visit exhibitions, both in our original museum, as well as our main museum, in addition to the six distinct period Japanese gardens as well.

Our Japanese style entertains very specific elements.

You will come to see our waterfalls, our rock configurations.

You will come to see our bamboo.

(gentle music) - Let's pull that right here.

As much as you can.

- [Burt] Hoichi Kurisu is the world's most respected designer of Japanese gardens.

- Hoichi Kurisu is our landscape architect designer, and he very emphatically looked at our area with the species that are, the plant species that are specific to our area, and in conjunction with true Japanese style, developed each one of the sixth period gardens.

We hope someday to have a seventh in our master plan.

We hope also some day to have some other elements in our bonsai area, and artisan village, all things that will continue to complement the garden experience, as well as an Amanohashidate phase, all true and authentic and realistic to Japanese culture and history.

- Here is a international tourist town.

We have to think about the whole hot atmosphere and the climate following the Japanese gardens principle.

Here is still Japanese garden.

Yes, new garden, Japanese garden.

But it's meet to demand for the area.

- [Burt] He says that it is essential to connect with the time and beauty of the garden.

- Any place you feel beauty is not connected with time.

It's forever in your heart.

Mr.

Morikami's, you might say dream and the desire, is not they are developed as a house development.

It's for the people.

That's the idea which I have heard.

We should tribute and honor to him his dream.

- [Burt] When you visit the museum, you enter the gardens from a large patio.

The first thing you see is wide open water.

You feel the quietness.

You can view and feel the calm of the water.

You see the pagoda.

You want to go there, but you must approach it slowly.

First, follow the meandering paths, cross the bridge.

- [Hoichi] And the Japanese garden has set up some psychological way, everything, in a way, and you cannot see through very end.

But you have to know this garden is, chronologically, is based on symbolically from Heian period to modern Japan.

Japanese gardens' strong elements is you count the bone structure is boulders, and then the trees, and the water, and go on the lights and the sounds, and everything else.

But it's one of the even the three elements is water.

(soft piano music) - [Burt] The Shinden Garden is inspired by the gardens of a period in the ninth to 12th century.

During this time, Japanese nobility used Chinese garden designs that featured lakes and islands.

This style of garden was usually viewed by boat.

The Paradise Garden was designed to represent Buddhist heaven.

The Early Rock Garden was influenced by Chinese landscape art, and the early concept of zen.

These gardens were designed not to be walkthrough, but to be viewed from the temples and reflected on.

The dry landscape style was almost empty of plants.

Instead they have stones and gravel.

The flat garden style is a combination of the late stone garden and the tea garden.

The garden style is known for its accents, such as a pagoda, lanterns, and stepping stones.

The last historical garden featured at Morikami is the modern romantic garden.

Naturalism and western influences inspired the creation of this garden style.

- [Hoichi] So when the people go through this garden, wow.

I'll be better.

(soft inspiring music) (soft Japanese folk music) - [Burt] Morikami also has an excellent restaurant.

- So we're very fortunate to have a tried and true dining experience here at the Morikami Museum and Japanese Gardens.

The museum opened its first facility in 1977, and in 1993 when we opened up our main museum, the Cornell Cafe actually embarked on a journey of cuisine here.

And we feel very fortunate that we have a Pan-Asian cafe.

And over the last almost 30 some odd years now, they have tried a variety of Pan-Asian dishes, and they will continually tweak them and change them in accordance with the tastes of our guests and our visitors and our members.

So we feel very lucky that we have the same family, Christy and Fu Chen, that have operated the Cornell Cafe all these many years.

- Well, I've eaten there a number of times, and their food is great.

- Thank you.

- I've been to the Morikami Museum a number of times, always enjoyed the food in the restaurant, and always found something to buy in their gift shop, where I will be for quite a while.

And before I forget, please join us next time on your local PBS station.

But wait, there's more!

For daily Reels featuring interviews, stories, and recipes filmed during these shows, visit Nicholas Wolf TV on Instagram, or Burt Wolf TV On YouTube.

(soft Japanese folk music) (soft Japanese folk music continues) (soft Japanese folk music continues) - [Announcer] "Travels and Traditions" is made possible by Chemex coffeemakers.

Makers of scientifically designed coffeemakers and filters since 1941.

Pure design, pure flavor.

ChemeX.

And by Artrepreneur, a global platform for artists, empowering artists to succeed, and connecting art lovers, designers, and collectors with curated works.

Artrepreneur.com.

And by YP Foundation.

Helping those in need through education and improving life skills.

Guided by the principles of good deeds, charity, and public welfare.

YP Foundation.

And by Five Star Travel Inc in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Since 1985, Five Star Travel has been developing and delivering detailed itineraries for trips, cruises, and vacations to destinations around the world.

Five Star Travel, Inc.

(soft music)