San Antonio's Japanese Tea Garden is throwing open its gates this Saturday for a free festival marking 100 years since Jingu House first served visitors tea, food and novelties. The Jingu Festival runs from 5 to 9 p.m. on October 10, 2026, with free admission and free parking for anyone who wants to wander the garden near Brackenridge Park, catch live performances and sample Japanese street food.
The celebration centers on Jingu House, a structure that functions as the garden's public temple on the mount and remains one of its central landmarks, according to the San Antonio Current. The festival itself is billed as a free event honoring the 100th anniversary of Jingu House, according to the San Antonio Parks Foundation, which organizes programming at the garden located at 3853 North Saint Mary's Street. Guests can explore the garden and enjoy performances.
Admission and parking are free, the parks foundation notes, while CultureMap separately confirms that admission is free for anyone planning to drop by after work or dinner. Neither source details whether advance registration is required, so attendees should plan around the 5 to 9 p.m. window without assuming a ticket is necessary. The event's website is listed as saparks.org, and the garden can also be reached by phone at (210) 559-3148, according to the San Antonio Current.
A Century-Old Story Rooted In The Bamboo Room
The house being celebrated this weekend has a history stretching back long before most San Antonians were born. The Japanese Tea Garden itself was built inside an abandoned rock quarry between 1917 and 1919, according to MySA, but the structure now known as Jingu House traces its public debut to 1926, when it opened as the Bamboo Room. Kimi Eizo Jingu and his wife, Miyoshi, ran that original restaurant, selling food, tea and novelties to visitors who came through the garden, the outlet reports.
The Jingu family's time at the garden ended abruptly in 1942, when they were evicted amid anti-Japanese discrimination following Pearl Harbor, and the garden was renamed the Chinese Tea Garden, per the same MySA account. That name lasted decades before a 1984 ceremony marked the garden's return to its original identity as the Japanese Tea Garden, the report notes. The property underwent a $2 million renovation between 2007 and 2015, during which Jingu House reopened as a cafe in 2011 under Fresh Horizons Creative Catering, MySA reports.
From Snack Bar To Centennial Celebration
More recently, restaurateur Cappy Lawton announced in 2023 that he had taken over operations at Jingu House, repositioning it as an elevated snack bar, according to the same MySA history. That chapter sets the stage for this weekend's centennial programming, which the San Antonio Current frames as a celebration of the Tea Garden's commitment to making San Antonio unique and beautiful.
A second, separate event is planned for later in the month: the Jingu Centennial Gala, set for October 16, 2026, at The Ralston at the San Antonio Zoo. The parks foundation describes it as celebrating a century of beauty, culture and community, with proceeds tied to plans to preserve and enhance the historic garden for its next hundred years. That evening is slated to open with a Taiko drum performance alongside wine, sake and a full bar, followed by dinner, live music and a video tribute from Mabel Jingu Enkoji, according to the parks foundation. Bexar County Judge Peter Sakai is scheduled to deliver remarks at the gala as well, the organization notes.
Saturday's festival, by contrast, is the free and public counterpart, open to anyone who wants to spend an evening among the garden's koi ponds and stone bridges without a ticket price attached. Whether it overlaps with other programming happening at the Japanese Tea Garden that same weekend has not been detailed beyond the shared date and location.
