Japanese Cultural Center

The Japanese Cultural Center, Tea House, and Gardens of Saginaw is a nonprofit that promotes intercultural understanding through the art of tea ceremony. Its three-acre Tokushima-Saginaw Friendship Garden has been open to the public for over 50 years and reflects a long friendship with its sister city, Tokushima, Japan. The grounds include Japanese rock landscapes, a waterfall, a stream under a vermilion arch bridge, stone lanterns, and a collection of Tokushima Blue Rocks.

The Awa Saginaw An, a sukiya-style tea house built in 1985 with materials imported from Japan, is the center's best-known feature. Tea ceremony demonstrations, garden and tea house tours for groups and walk-in visitors, and cultural programs and festivals are offered throughout the season. Public hours run from April through October, Tuesday through Saturday, and the center hosts tea ceremonies on the second Saturday of the winter months. It is located at 527 Ezra Rust Drive in Saginaw, near downtown in Saginaw's Central Park System.