One of the largest and oldest Japanese Festivals returned to the Missouri Botanical Garden last weekend
St. Louis, MO – The Missouri Botanical Garden celebrated its 45th Japanese Festival over Labor Day weekend. It’s home to one of the largest Japanese gardens in the country.
“This festival is actually a thank you to the St. Louis community, from the Japanese American community. Because of internment. We had 40 families jump off the train when they were coming through St. Louis to relocate and of all the cities they stopped at on the train ride. St. Louis was the only one to welcome them,” Bonita Harmon, with Kimono-San of St. Louis, said.
To kick things off the Omikoshi shrine made its way through the grounds.
“It is actually one of only five traditional Japanese Omikoshi shrines in the United States and it is a 400-pound lacquered piece of hand-carved artwork, it's made out of wood,” Harmon said.
Mitzi Hedgecock with St. Louis Okinawa Kenjinkei Eisa said it’s so important to her and her family to share their culture and celebrate with the community.
