Yamashiro Historic District

Yamashiro Historic District
Yamashiro Restaurant inside (top) and Outside (bottom)
Yamashiro Restaurant inside (top) and Outside (bottom)
Yamashiro Historic District is located in the Los Angeles metropolitan area
Yamashiro Historic District
Location within Los Angeles metropolitan area
Location1999 N. Sycamore Ave,
Los Angeles, California
Coordinates34°06′21″N 118°20′32″W / 34.1058°N 118.3421°W / 34.1058; -118.3421
ArchitectFranklin M. Small
Websiteyamashirohollywood.com
NRHP reference No.12000811
Added to NRHPSeptember 25, 2012
Yamashiro in Hollywood, depicted on a postcard from c. 1914.

The Yamashiro Historic District is located on Sycamore Avenue in the Hollywood Hills, Los Angeles, California, United States.

The villa that forms the district's centerpiece was constructed from 1911 to 1914 by artisans and craftsmen from Japan for the German-American Adolph Leopold Bernheimer (1866-1944) and Eugene Elija Bernheimer (1865-1924) [noted as brothers to Charles L. Bernheimer] to house their collection of Japanese art and valuable items. Mainly acquired in Japan and China, their collection comprised ukiyo-e prints, silk paintings, Buddhist sculptures and wall paintings, wood carvings, jades, bronze sculptures, furniture, and “Oriental” goods.[1][2] The establishment was called the Yamashiro Hollywood, but can also be known as the Bernheimer Villa and Oriental Gardens.[3] As the villa was located on top of a hill, it was called a yamashiro, a Japanese word that in this case means "mountain castle" (山城). The district consists of the villa, several smaller buildings (of which a number no longer exist), and landscaped gardens. The area was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2012.[3]

Today, the villa houses an Asian restaurant.[4]

  1. ^ Geo V. O’Dodd, “The Castle on a Hill (Yama Shiro),” The Architect and Engineer (June 1923): 87-95.
  2. ^ Shen, Dianne Lee. "Yamashiro: Imagined Home and the Aesthetics of Hollywood Japanism." Review of Japanese Culture and Society, vol. 32, 2020, p. 132-152. Project MUSE, https://doi.org/10.1353/roj.2020.0027.
  3. ^ a b "National Register of Historic Place Registration Form : Yamashiro Historic District" (PDF). Nps.gov. Retrieved April 29, 2017.
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference autogenerated3 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).