Next time you visit the Palm Beach area, take the time to visit the Morikami Museum and Japanese Gardens.  As the name implies, the museum is set amidst 16 acres of meticulously manicured Japanese Gardens. Founded in 1977 as a center for Japanese arts and culture in South Florida, the Morikami Museum and Japanese Gardens traces its roots back to 1904 when a group of Japanese farmers settled in what is now northern Boca Raton and founded the Yamato Colony.  While their farming venture was ultimately disappointing, one settler remained.  George Sukeji Morikami cultivated crops and acted as a fruit and vegetable wholesaler until the 1970s, when he was in his 80s.  At that time, he donated land to Palm Beach County with the wish that it be used as a park to preserve the memory of the pioneering Yamato Colony.

Today, the Museum features rotating exhibitions in its galleries, traditional tea ceremonies performed in its Seishin-an Tea House, educational outreach programs with local schools and organizations, and Japanese traditional festivals and special events celebrated throughout the year. The museum houses a permanent collection of thousands of Japanese art objects and artifacts, and includes a café and a 225-seat theater.

Recently, the Museum was honored with a stunning promised bequest from Kokeshi collector Robert J. Brokop of San Francisco.  Bob’s collection includes nearly 1000 dolls. Kokeshi are lathe-turned wooden dolls that have deep and long-standing roots in the arts and culture of Japan.  These minimalist, abstract-shaped dolls are one of the oldest and most unique examples of human form mimicry. Designs remained virtually unchanged since their inception in the 19th century, featuring limbless cylinder-shaped bodies with round heads.  In the 1950s, artists began experimenting with a variety of materials and techniques, transforming Kokeshi into myriad shapes and sizes, imbuing them with fanciful expressions and decorative surface treatments.  It is these post-1950 Kokeshi, called sosaku Kokeshi (sosaku meaning creative) that comprise Brokop’s collection.