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Yamashiro, imagined home and the aesthetics of Hollywood Japanism: memory contained in architectural space

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Yamashiro, imagined home and the aesthetics of Hollywood Japanism: memory contained in architectural space

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Content 1

Yamashiro,
Imagined Home and the Aesthetics of Hollywood Japanism:
Memory Contained in Architectural Space

By Dianne E. Lee

A Thesis Presented to the
Faculty of the USC Graduate School
At the University of Southern California
August 2018

In Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Master of Arts Degree
In East Asian Area Studies

Dr. Miya Elise Mizuta Lippit, Ph.D.
Thesis Committee Chair

Dr. Sonya S. Lee, Ph.D.
Committee Member

Dr. Lon Kurashige, Ph.D.
Committee Member

2

"There is no object in Japan that seems to excite more diverse
and adverse criticism among foreigners than does the
Japanese house; it is a constant source of perplexity…"

…Within these plain and unpretentious houses there are often
to be seen marvels of exquisite carving, and the perfection of
cabinet work; and surprise follows surprise, as one becomes
more fully acquainted with the interior finish of these curious
and remarkable dwellings."

-Edward Sylvester (E.S.) Morse,
“Japanese Homes and their Surroundings”
(1885)

3

1

1
Yamashiro visitors in front of the imported pagoda from Japan, c. 1915-1920
4

2

2
(Top) Image from Country Life Magazine, 1922; (Bottom) Postcard from UCLA IMLab Media Archive of Postcards of the
Bernheimer Residence Collection, c. 1920s
5

Table of Contents

Abstract ............................................................................................................................................6
Preface..............................................................................................................................................8
Introduction ....................................................................................................................................11
Chapter 1: Yamashiro as Hollywood Japanism ............................................................................14
1.1) The Hollywood Imagination of Japan .......................................................................17
1.2) Art Collectors and Connoisseurs of Pasadena and the 'Others' of Hollywood ..........20
Chapter 2: Yamashiro as Space and Spectacle in America ..........................................................24
2.1) Recreating the Japanese Pavilion of the World's Fair at the Bernheimer Home .......27
2.2) Liminality in Architectural Space: Memorializing Space as a Museum ...................28
Conclusion .....................................................................................................................................30
Illustrations and Photographs .........................................................................................................33
Acknowledgements ........................................................................................................................50
Bibliography ..................................................................................................................................52

6

Abstract
At the turn of the twentieth century, Boston was intimately involved in America's foundational
understanding of Japanese art and culture through key figures like E.S. Morse and Okakura
Kazuko. Morse produced one of the most influential written texts on Japanese architecture,
Japanese Homes and Their Surroundings (1885), while Okakura, the first curator of Japanese art
at the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, prepared the American stage for Japan’s arrival through his
books, Ideals of the East with Special Reference to the Arts of Japan (1904) and The Book of Tea
(1906).
3
These written works spurred curiosity for Japanese aesthetics and critically meditated
on the position of Asian art within the sphere of world art. Consequently, this trend led to the
development of private Japanese art collections by collectors like Isabella Stewart Gardner and
John D. Rockefeller, as well as paved the path for major public institutions to curate and display
collections of 'Oriental' art such as the renowned collection of Japanese art at the Museum of
Fine Arts Boston. Such literature, collectors and collections became synonymous with Japanism
and the history of Asian art in America.
4

While extensive scholarship has been written on the popularity of Japanism in Boston and other
major American cities such as Chicago and New York City, little has been written on its impacts
and legacy in Los Angeles. Many scholars fail to specify that ‘Japanism in American culture' as
we understand it, is more so connected to 'East Coast American' culture than it is to 'West Coast
American' culture. From this lens, this thesis explores this distinction through the Yamashiro
(1914), a Japanese-style home residence of Adolph and Eugene Bernheimer built in Hollywood,
California. The home serves as a case study to examine the intersections of architecture and
cultural identity and the formations of memory contained in space (private and public). The
Yamashiro has long stood outside the conventional views of Japanese (and broadly Asian) art
and architecture, therefore this study approaches the Yamashiro as a ‘living museum’
representative of a nostalgic era of a unique Hollywood Japanism in Los Angeles. It considers
the deeper implications of preserving the home space as a form of memorialization and
reexamines the space as an extension of the Oriental Pavilions at the World’s Fairs. This thesis
ultimately explores how the Yamashiro constructed certain public perceptions and ideas of Japan
and Asia-at-large through the architectural portrayals of Japan in Los Angeles.

Key Words: American Japanism, Yamashiro, Heritage Home Preservation, Japanese Architecture, Southern
California Arts and Crafts Movement, Hollywood Art, Los Angeles Architecture, Japanese Aesthetics, Memory,

3
Murai, Noriko and Chong, Alan. Inventing Asia: American Perspectives around 1900 (2014).
4
Japonisme describes the fascination for Japanese art and aesthetics in Europe in the mid-late nineteenth century. Derived from
the French term, Japanism is used to describe Japan’s artistic and cultural influence in America. Japanism signified the ultimate
high sophistication for the social elite in urban, developed cities at turn of the twentieth century. In this thesis, I refer to Japanism
in “West Coast America” as describing Japan's influence in Los Angeles and greater Southern California. The idea of a unique
distinction between “West Coast” versus “East Coast” Japanism was first cultivated through my graduate seminar led by Dr.
Sonya S. Lee, where we discussed the establishment of public and private collections of Asian art in America, specifically
through the influence of Okakura Kazuko and the Japanese collection at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, and the
flourishment of Japanism in Chicago through the World’s Fair's display and exhibitions; See "Ideas of Asia in the Museum" (Vol.
28) Journal of the History of Collections, (2016). Parts of this thesis have been taken from my final term paper written for Dr.
Miya Elise Mizuta Lippit's Japanese visual studies course entitled "Japan Housed in LA" and rapidly developed through my
conversations with her and Dr. Kendall H. Brown, whose work on Japanese gardens in West-Coast America compelled me to
consider the differing cultural coastal climates and how we currently define American Japanism; See Brown, Japanese-style
Gardens of the Pacific West Coast (1999).
7

5

5
Main entrance to the Bernheimer Home, Yamashiro, c.1915-1930s; The stairs of the Yamashiro grounds currently lead down to
the famed 600 year old pagoda and Buddha relic/statue/sculpture; Yamashiro Collection of Photographs.
8

Preface

山城 (Yama – Shiro) | "Mountain Palace" as translated in Japanese

“A somewhat more delicate fantasy than Hollywood
is normally associated with these Japanese gardens
in 1913[4] – an age when Hollywood was still a
soporific residential suburb whose inhabitants could
view with amused disdain the antics of those crazy
film-makers.”

T.H. Watkins,
“California in Color, Paradox of Plenty”
(1970) pp. 44-45

Following the years of the fêted Japanese Pavilion at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition
Fair in Chicago, Japanese art romanced America. An imagination of ‘life and home in Japan’
was emulated in the home space via souvenirs such as porcelains, teas, lacquers, silks, prints and
other material goods.
6
For wealthy Americans, this fascination evolved into the collecting of
Japanese art, and consequently the establishment of private family collections of Asian art as a
marker of social and cultural prestige. The construction of the Yamashiro in Los Angeles takes
place at this particular time in American history, but its story is largely unknown and
unmentioned in academic scholarship. How did its story become obscured when its history
provides rich contextual study of Asian visual studies and architectural studies within American
history? Moreover, why has its story not sparked more scholarly interest or analysis when its
physical size, location, distinctive architecture and public popularity are undeniable? It is from
these questions this thesis enters the vast field of Japanism in the United States to tell one
regional story of the influence of Japanese aesthetics in Southern California.

In Los Angeles, Hollywood and Pasadena neighborhoods are home to former residences (now
turned heritage home museums) such as the David B. Gamble House (1908) and Aline Barnsdall
Hollyhock House (1919) which are frequently attributed to Japanism during the Late Arts and
Crafts Movement and later Early Modernism in American architectural discourse.
7
In stark
contrast, the Yamashiro, which entirely replicates and exemplifies essential characteristics and
features of Japanese architecture, is culturally memorialized and imagined as a site of
Orientalized pop-cultural kitsch rather than lauded as a substantive example of Japanism
architecture in California.
8

6
Turpin, Adriana, Gáldy, Andrea M. and Bracken, Susan. Collecting Histories: Collecting East and West (2013)
7
The Arts and Crafts Movement flourished during the late nineteenth to early twentieth centuries in the United States. Early
American Modernism in architecture began taking shape immediately preceding the Arts and Crafts Movements from the mid-
1910s. I highlight the importance of the overlapping exchange in architectural philosophy, designs, and aesthetics between the
two time periods around the time the Yamashiro was designed and constructed considering many architects including Charles
Greene and Henry Greene (Gamble House) and Frank Lloyd Wright (Hollyhock House) attribute their designs to Japanese
architectural aesthetics. This is significant to note as Japanese aesthetics permeated into the design and architectural framework
of the modern American home.
8
Said, Edward. Orientalism (1978); See pp. 226-254
9

This is perhaps due to the way in which the Yamashiro entered and remained in American
culture. In 1910, the lavish home was intentionally designed as an authentic Japanese home,
envisioned by two semi-nouveau-riche Jewish German American brothers, constructed by a New
York American architect, in order to house a Japanese (and other Asian) art collection in a newly
developing immigrant town (Hollywood) when California was considered to be remote lands of
the Western frontier.
9
Residing in the home for only a mere ten years, younger brother Adolph
Bernheimer eventually sold the home upon his brother, Eugene Bernheimer’s, death in 1924.
Under new ownership in 1925, the estate was renovated into an elite entertainment club, the 400
Club, for Hollywood film producers and then shortly after transformed into a boy’s military
school. In 1948, the property was purchased by Thomas O. Glover who later reopened it as a
hotel and country club gaining popularity into the mid-1950s.
10
In 1960, the Glover family
formally reopened the Yamashiro as a restaurant and it still functions as one today. In 2016, the
property was purchased by a Chinese hospitality firm from the Glover family, and has reentered
Los Angeles as an official city landmark memorializing the property as an ultra-glamorized
Japanese-themed restaurant and bar, forgetting its roots as once the Bernheimer home.
11
Under
these circumstances and its performative (related to clubs and entertainment) nature, how do we
academically classify and understand where the Yamashiro fits into American identity and
architecture?

This unclassifiableness is one of the primary reasons scholars have largely ignored or overlooked
the Yamashiro. It is slippery to approach the Yamashiro from one specific academic framework,
as it does not elegantly fit or neatly categorize into one distinct discipline or field of study.
Because of the complex interdisciplinary nature that encroaches into multiple fields, no one
scholastic field has singularly claimed the Yamashiro as its own, which has resulted in its history
to be adrift in the archives. More importantly, the estate straddles a fine line between public and
private spheres, as it has remained a privately-owned entity since inception, while
simultaneously being publically protected as an official registered historical site for the city of
Los Angeles. When such properties and collections remain in the hands of private owners, it is
concealed making it less accessible for public research and in-depth study.

This thesis is a call for reorientations in interdisciplinary discourse and new modes of
engagement with traditional methodologies pertaining to the fields of American History, Asian
American Studies, Art History, Architectural Studies, Museology and Collections Studies,
Historical Preservation and Conservation Studies, California (and Regional) History, and
Cultural Anthropology – all fields which will benefit from re-observing the Yamashiro as a
subject of ethnographic interest and as a symbol of the arrival of ‘Japan’ in West Coast American

9
Ornately decorated with wood and lacquered gold in its interior and exterior, materials and structures were imported from
Japan. A pagoda was imported from Kyoto, and reconstructed at the property site in 1914, and is noted to be the oldest existing
structure at 600 year old in California today.
10
See United States Department of Interior; National Park Service and National Register of Historic Places Registration Form –
Yamashiro Historic District, pp. 10-12; It is written here that Glover intended to demolish the house and gardens to redevelop the
site, however upon discovering significant hidden panels of traditional Japanese prints behind cement walls, he decided to restore
the original property.
11
In 2016, the Yamashiro was bought by a JE Investment Group; No definite plans have been publically announced for future
endeavors. In 2015, film director Ben Strang of Blueprint Motion Pictures directed a short documentary entitled, The Sale,
detailing the potential last days of Yamashiro before its sale from the Glover family.
10

culture.
12
As the confines and limitations are now presented, this thesis shares my own
analytical critique. Newspapers, particularly the Los Angeles Times and Los Angeles Herald, and
photographs became the richest sources and led me to deeply contemplate how histories are
recorded and the power of those reporting the news. Public records such as the United States
passport and visa documents, (newspaper) advertisements, postcards, photographs, film, and
reviews have also been used, including a rare sales catalog showcasing the breadth of the
Bernheimer collection from the public estate sale held at the Roy J. Goldenberg Galleries in
Beverly Hills on September 17, 1951.
13
Much of this thesis was developed through the help
from those who are familiar with the cultural terrain of Los Angeles and the Yamashiro at this
particular time in Southern California's history.

For any student researcher, it is pivotal to have an inspirational space to research and write – and
oddly my home has become just that. Considering that the underlying themes revolve around the
home (space) and private collections, it has compelled me to contemplate how my own home
serves as my personal museum housing my belongings and memories.
14
This viewpoint reminds
me to study the Bernheimer brothers, first and foremost as people. By immersing into their lives
in this manner, we can attempt to understand their world and how they chose to live in it.

12
To date and best of my knowledge, no comprehensive account has been published on the Yamashiro as a purveyor of Japanese
visual studies in the United States, despite being one of the few, if not the only, existing historical homes that exactly replicates
Japanese architectural design and influence in the early 20
th
century.
13
This rare public sales catalogue was found and compiled by the mentorship and guidance of Dr. Brown; See archives and
collections at the Pacific Palisades Historical Society.
14
Clifford, James. The Predicament of Culture; See “On Collecting Art and Culture” (1988)
11

Introduction

"We should therefore have to say
in how we inhabit our vital space,
in accord with all ethical dialectics of life,
how we take root, day after day, in a ‘corner of our
world’…For our house is our corner of the world. As has
often been said, it is our first universe, a real cosmos in every
sense of the word."

- Gaston Bachelard,
“Le Poetique de Le'espace” (1964)
Translated from French to English by Maria Jolas

The home and its contents are portals into the owner's most intimate memories and private
imaginations, as their entire past dwells in this space.
15
Where we choose to live and the items
we surround ourselves with ultimately become our private museum and the objects, a collection
of ourselves. What we choose to preserve not only become material manifestations of our
personal identities, but deeper reflections of our greater societies and histories. In the exemplary
case of two brothers, their home shaped the early urban landscape of Los Angeles, and their
possessions incited certain perceptions and constructed identities concerning “life in the Orient”.

Asian art collectors and brothers, Adolph Leopold (1866-1944) and Eugene Elija (1865-1924)
Bernheimer, arrived in Los Angeles from New York with an extensive private collection of
Japanese art they amassed between the late 1880s and early 1900s during their travels to Asia.
16

Mainly acquired in Japan and China, their art collection included antique furniture, ukiyo-e
prints, silk paintings, Buddhist sculptures and wall paintings, and jade and bronze sculptures. It
was this very collection that served as their compass in designing and building a home residence
suitable to display their art objects in an aesthetic manner. By 1914, their Japan-inspired
mansion home was constructed on the hills of Hollywood, which they nostalgically called the
Yamashiro Palace.
17
Despite its drastic transformational history of its functionality for more
than a century, the exterior architectural design remains essentially unchanged and still evokes
the same awe and wonder for a romanticized old Japan as it did when it was first constructed.
18

In recent years, Los Angeles has implemented extensive preservation and restoration projects to
protect former home residences and historic neighborhoods. Many of these homes are housed in

15
Bachelard, Gaston. Le Poetique de Le'espace (1964); Translated from French to English by Maria Jolas.
16
See Official United States Travel Visa Application for Adolph Bernheimer in ‘Illustrations and Photographs’
17
The Bernheimers placed a nameplate with ' 山城' engraved above the front doors as a homage to Japanese architecture. The
Yamashiro has been referred to as: Yamashiro Historic District, Bernheimer Villa and Oriental Gardens, The Bernheimer-
Yamashiro Estate, The Yamashiro Villa, Yama-Shira Villa, The Yamashiro Mansion and Japanese Gardens, The Bernheimer
Estate and Japanese Gardens, The Bernheimer Japanese Villa, Japanese House and Garden, The Bernheimer Mansion and
Japanese Gardens, The Japanese Mansion in Hollywood, The Japanese Villa and Bernheimer Gardens, The Bernheimer Japanese
Gardens and Estate, and the Bernheimer Japanese Home and Garden in various literature, newspapers, illustrated postcards.
These names add to the difficulty of locating information for research on the subject, but also understanding how it was
remembered in history. For the purposes of this thesis, I will refer to it as the Yamashiro and Bernheimer Home, depending on
the topic at hand.
18
Rodman, Edmon J., "Yamashiro: The Mountain Palace built by Jews" (July 6, 2016)
12

(West) Hollywood and Pasadena areas, and are frequently attributed to Japanism and craftsman-
style architecture during the Arts and Crafts Movement in the early decades of the twentieth
century, unlike the Yamashiro.
19
In order to explore why the Yamashiro was disregarded from
the Japanism movement, Chapter One purposefully examines the history of Hollywood, not
simply as an enclave of Los Angeles, but as a symbol of the sensational fantasy and make-
believe. In doing so, the chapter explores the unique intersection of Hollywood and Japanism,
and consequently the development of a 'cinematic Japan', or a term I describe as "Hollywood
Japanism,"
20
From this framework, this term examines how personal tastes and imaginations of
exclusive and elite communities of art collectors fueled and constructed a new emulation for
Japanese art and aesthetic in Southern California.

Chapter Two investigates the shifting representations and performances of space and
architectural body of a “heritage home museum” in modern American culture, as a lived “space”
and “place" (simultaneously imagined and real) that present deeper realities and conversations
about our societies.
21
From this framework, the second chapter critically re-envisions and
reconsiders the Yamashiro in terms of exploration of this physical space vis-a-vis liminality in its
architecture (which I define as a “place” representative of the consistent-altering-of-space due to
its transformative nature in its functionality) as well as liminality in its memory (which I define
as a "place in mind and/or imagination" representative of the consistently-altering-state-of-space
due to the changing perspectives of the individual experience and how it is remembered or
memorialized). Simply put, I suggest that the early years of the Yamashiro illustrates how the
private act and personal enjoyment for collecting Asian art objects (the interior) penetrated into
the architectural aesthetic and design of the Yamashiro (the exterior), which ultimately expanded
and influenced the general public (the greater exterior) as a purveyor of subliminal ideas and
visual portrayals of Asia in Southern California. Despite the interior transformations in its
functionality during the past century, the nostalgic imaginations of the Bernheimer’s still are
indisputably alive and dwell in the space in contemporary times through its existing collection of
physical objects and spatial memories.
22
Space represents more than physical material and
uncovers functional and symbolic reflections of our culture, value, and society.

To conclude, the Bernheimer private art collection and Yamashiro served as a physical site and
marker that positioned larger artistic and ideological constructions of Japanese visual culture
uniquely distinct to Los Angeles since the turn of the 20
th
century. This study ultimately aims to
understand this particular moment in the arrival of Japanese art and aesthetics in Los Angeles’s
pivotal developing years as an urbanizing city and multicultural society through the construction
of the Yamashiro, and seeks to explore how the conversion from “Yamashiro as home” to
“Yamashiro as living museum” functions as a memorialization of Japanese visual culture in
West Coast America.

19
In the early 1900s, West Hollywood was not yet established; the neighborhood became officially recognized as a city in 1984.
20
Hollywood Japanism is term I use to refer and allude to this specific type of Japanism in Los Angeles as a means of portraying
Japanese (visual) culture in films, media and art as a highly dramatized and “Orientalized” culture. I would also like to note the
term Chinoiserie as another popularized term to describe the fascination of Chinese porcelains and arts in the seventeenth and
eighteenth centuries in Europe.
21
Michel Foucault builds upon Gaston Bachelard’s work and the descriptions of phenomenologists in regards to the idea that we
do not live in homogeneous and empty spaces, but on the contrary in space “imbued with quantities …and fantasmatic”
(heterotopic space); Foucault, M. Of Other Spaces (1986) Diacritics, 16(1), 22-27.
22
I am referring to the various transitions from home residence to club, from boys military school to restaurant.
13

23

23
(Top) From the California State Library Online Database Catalog, Print (Postcard) 3 ½ x 5 1/2in, of the Bernheimer Residence,
Hollywood, California, c. 1940s; (Bottom) (Top) From the California State Library Online Database Catalog, Print (Postcard) 3
½ x 5 1/2in, of the Inner Court, Yamashiro Castle, Hollywood, Scenic Gardens, c. 1940s
14

Chapter 1 | Yamashiro as Hollywood Japanism

“Because of the intense blue sky and sea that continues for
such long, unbroken periods, the amethyst distant mountains
that form an almost universal background for houses or cities,
the golden brown of summer fields, the varied green of
pepper, eucalyptus and poplar trees that cut across it in such
decorative forms and the profusion of gay flowers that grow
so quickly and easily, houses of a bright romantic
picturesqueness are perfectly suitable that would see too
dramatic in other parts of the county. They seem a pleasing
part of the orange-belted flower fields and belong to the semi-
tropical land. These same houses would certainly look
artificial and amusingly uncomfortable and out of place in the
east; but they essentially belong to the land of sunshine.”

-Irving J. Gill on California
“The Home of the Future – The New Architecture of the West”
(1916)
24

By 1885, the United States entered an industrial, modern era. Southern California changed from
idyllic pastures of ranching communities to one of the fastest growing economies and
metropolises. Through the development and expansion of the Santa Fe Railroad, the second
transcontinental railway, Americans from the East and Midwest ventured west to claim stakes in
new properties and new businesses in Southern California, completely reshaping the cultural and
social landscape of the Los Angeles.
25
On a global scale, fundamental societal changes and
realignments of the world also took place, including the fall of long-established aristocratic
families, which resulted in enormous quantities of artworks in the possession of such elites to be
released to the open market. The recipients of these artworks were the nouveau riche who
provided the funding source for art purchases which was directly connected to the wealth
brought by the development of capitalism under the Industrial Revolution. This new trend was
symbolized by the fact that the people responsible for large-scale art collections in the nineteenth
century were those engaged in vital industries, such as coal, steel, railroad, and later, oil. The
Bernheimer family exemplifies this, as they accumulated wealth from cotton and textile material
production.

Born in Ulm, Germany, Adolph and Eugene Bernheimer arrived in the U.S. in 1888, where their
father, Leopold Maier Bernheimer, was in the dry goods business. Along with their brother,
Charles Leopold Bernheimer (1864-1944), they were the principal owners of Bear Mill
Manufacturing Company of New York, a maker of cotton products, which ultimately provided
the monetary wealth to build their art collection.
26
The two brothers toured extensively through

24
Irving Gill designed the Militmore Home (residence) in South Pasadena in 1911. Gill is attributed as an early modernist
architect in Southern California, whose work shows influence of the Arts and Craft Movement; The Architect and Engineer, pp.
77-87 (1916)
25
Stargel, Cory & Stargel, Sarah, Vanishing. Los Angeles County (2010).
26
The family business as also noted as ‘Bernheimer & Walter Company’ under Charles Bernheimer in New York. Charles
Bernheimer remained and continued to reside in state of New York. Other siblings of the Bernheimer family include Hugo
Chajim Bernheimer (1867-1869), Fritz Jaakov Bernheimer (1869-1937), Simon Leopold Bernheimer (1871-1929), Max
15

Asia for new textile designs and material, which provoked a new business idea to import
“Oriental goods” for the American market. As collecting Oriental antiques and 'treasures'
became an increasingly popular pastime in major American cities, the Bernheimers traveled
frequently to Asia and acquired a taste for (and eventually collected) Japanese and Chinese art.

Although most of their collection is acknowledged to be Japanese, many objects originated from
other parts of Asia, especially China (and Hong Kong) as evidently marked in their travel visa
applications from various years.
27
It is evident by the architectural design and estate name that
the Bernheimers had an unmistakable passion for Japanese architecture and aesthetics.
28

Like the Bernheimers, East Coast Americans flocked to Santa Monica, Pasadena, and Hollywood
areas as the fame of the Southern California's gentle winters and pleasant summers spread
through advertisements and literature in the early decade of the 20th century.
29
Consequently,
the development of resort hotels, entertainment and tourism catered to wealthy original East
Coast Americans developed throughout some of Los Angeles' most scenic and iconic spaces.
Entertainment and tourism particularly established as one of the region’s chief industries,
especially with its unique geography offering a variety of amusement and recreational
opportunities to be enjoyed by tourists and residents alike.
30
Regional public parks, such as Echo
Park and Westlake Park, and larger parks considered for hiking and nature preservation, such as
Elysian Park and Griffith Park gained popularity for local and visiting residents.
31
Alongside
these municipal parks, private zoos and farms were converted to businesses that offered
carnivalesque entertainment including the showcasing of animals. Cawston’s Ostrich Farm
located in (South) Pasadena since 1896 was perhaps the most famous and widely visited
attraction as it was both an animal farm and park. Southern California's climate is essentially
what allowed airy architecture and gardens to flourish, including the development of private
gardens in home residences for (al fresco) entertainment. As gardens and beautifully-crafted
residences came to represent an image of high social status within the community, upper class
families (particularly wealthy women and wives) became concerned with landscaping their own
private Japanese-style gardens for social functions, charity events, and the popularized lawn
parties in their communities.
32
The Japanese garden in this regard became tied to this specific

Bernheimer (1873-1945), as well as half-siblings, Otto Bernheimer (1878-1905) and Anna Bernheimer (1879- Unknown). Little
information is known about the relationship Adolph and Eugene Bernheimer had with other siblings.
27
Adventure and desire for the nostalgic past seems to be a motif in the Bernheimer family, as they used their economic wealth to
fund new passions and interests in arts and archaeology. While Adolph Bernheimer and Eugene Bernheimer developed in interest
in collecting Asian art, Charles Bernheimer grew interested in archaeology, which led to working as an amateur archaeologist
later in his life. He is noted to have excavated in Utah and Arizona, and also donated found objects to the Natural History
Museum in New York City. "The New Yorker Journal", April 13, 1929, pp. 15-16
28
Some of their personal history was entered in the National Register of Historic Places in 2012, however lacked information on
the actual objects, including provenance, of their collection.
29
In California of the South (1888), Walter Lindley and J.P. Widney wrote that, “the health-seeker who, after suffering in both
mind and body, after vainly trying the cold climate of Minnesota and the warm climate of Florida, after visiting Mentone,
Cannes, and Nice, after traveling to Cuba and Algiers, and noticing that he is losing ounce upon ounce of flesh, that his cheeks
have grown more sunken, his appetite more capricious, his breath more hurried, that his temperature is no longer normal,… turns
with a gleam of hope toward the Occident [California].”
30
Noting this, a variety of both beach and mountain resorts were constructed by the first decades of the twentieth century.
31
Of these parks, it is important to note the opening of Exposition Park in 1911, as it would become the location of Los Angeles’
first official Museum of History, Science and Art in 1913.
32
Brown, Kendall (1999). Japanese-style Gardens of the Pacific West Coast / photographs by Melba Levick; Brown, K., &
Cobb, D. (2013). Quiet Beauty: Japanese Gardens of North America / photographs by David M. Cobb. Lawn parties in the
1920s
16

type of entertainment and symbolized a setting suitable for leisure activity for the educated,
sophisticated, and wealthy.

The Bernheimer Home exhibits all three element forms of entertainment: (1) the Japanese-style
private (later public) garden, (2) the (monkey, bird, & fish) zoo, and (3) the collection of ‘art
treasures from the Oriental East’ – surely a place impossible to miss in 1914. In fact, a Los
Angeles Times article published on Nov. 15, 1914, describes the Yamashiro as a “Wonder-house
of California,” and a “feudal fortress with a metropolitan setting” that left visitors in awe.
33
For
the Bernheimers, the Yamashiro was private home but it also served as a meeting location for
their parties and soirees, and doubled as a constructed attraction for entertainment. The home
became so well-known that wealthy East Coast families and even American politicians hoped to
receive a personal invitation to visit the home by the Bernheimers. Published in the Los Angeles
Evening Herald on August 11, 1915, William Bauchop (W.B.) Wilson, Secretary of Labor and
Marcus M. Marks, president of the borough of Manhattan, New York City, are noted to have
toured California. In the article, it is reported that “Marks and his wife [would] be guests of
Eugene and Adolph Bernheimer at their Hollywood villa [that evening]” while on their tour.
34
As
their home gained popularity, their Bernheimer name became more recognized in Los Angeles as
they also donated to local charitable causes and community groups.

In the early years of the Yamashiro, the Bernheimers supported entertainment organizations,
particularly thespian and theatre groups. In a Los Angeles Herald article entitled, "Another Aid
for Fighting Men Here's Boost for S.A.S.S.B (Society for the Amusement of Sailors and
Soldiers' Bands)" on September 23, 1918, the Bernheimers are listed as contributing members of
the organization.
35
Based on articles published both in the Los Angeles Times and Los Angeles
Herald, they invited and hosted guests in their home in order to showcase their Asian art
collection and Japanese gardens. Particularly after the First World War, the Bernheimers
donated to various relief and aid organizations as shown in a published announcement in the Los
Angeles Herald. The announcement includes a list an ‘honorary roll-call list of donors’ who
funded postwar relief organizations.
36
This is particularly important as it sheds light on how the
Bernheimer's ethnic Jewish-German-American background might have furthered them from and
disallowed their connection to other wealthy, powerful families in Los Angeles, thus excluding
them from such social affairs. In fact, in an article entitled "German ‘Arsenal’ in Hollywood
Only Pretty Residence" in the Los Angeles Herald on April 25, 1917, the Bernheimers are
rumored and suspected of espionage in their foreign-looking hideaway. “For weeks, ever since
war was declared,” it reads, “it has been a favorite pastime of rumor circulators to proclaim the
home as an arsenal…A thorough search at the request of Mr. [Adolph] Bernheimer disclosed
nothing of more importance than the usual appurtenances of a well-ordered home.” Perhaps to
stop the suspicions, each brother bought a $5,000 Victory Bond as listed in the announcement to
prove their American patriotism.
37

With the onset of the First World War, the Bernheimer’s German heritage had become
problematic, and the purchase of (a) war bond(s) did little to assuage the uneasiness of the

33
“Yamashiro: The Mountain Palace built by Jews” by Edmon J. Rodman, published July 6, 2016
34
Los Angeles Evening Herald, August 11, 1915, “Prosperity is Coming Fast Says Wilson: Meet Fruit Growers”
35
Los Angeles Herald, September 23, 1918, "Another Aid for Fighting Men Here's Boost for S.A.S.S.B"
36
Los Angeles Herald, October 16, 1918, “Victory Honor Roll”, No. 299
37
Los Angeles Herald, October 16, 1918, “Victory Honor Roll”, No. 299
17

community. As a result, Adolph Bernheimer decided it was perhaps time to leave Hollywood.
Following the death of Eugene Bernheimer in 1924 and the sale of the estate, the Yamashiro
took on a different functionality. The Bernheimer home and its contents were put up for auction,
and Joseph Toplitsky, a prominent developer, was the winning bidder.
38
Owning the property
for less than one year, Toplitsky sold the estate to financier and socialite, William Clark
Crittendon. In 1925, Crittendon purchased the home to house a new social club for members of
the entertainment industry called the 400 Club. Following the years of the 400 Club, the estate
became forever bound to Hollywood and was unable to disengage and separate from this cultural
connection. From this lens, the Yamashiro was no longer the Bernheimer home but rather a
Hollywoodified imagination of Japan. This transition would heavily influenced the fate and
future of the estate and art collection.

1.1 | The Hollywood Imagination of Japan

While the Yamashiro originally embodied the Bernheimer’s sincere emulation for and life in
Japan, the home became a quintessential Hollywood landmark attraction to the public. Because
of the large number of guests and visitors throughout the Yamashiro’s early years, the
Bernheimer’s nostalgic memories for Japan had shifted and transformed from personal spheres
(their space) to public spheres (visitor's space) through its art collection and architecture.
Therefore, the Yamashiro became Hollywood’s, and consequently Los Angeles’, first encounter
with Asia thus affecting the visual and cultural portrayals of Asia and Asians in silent film and
theatre during the late 1910s into the 1920s. This 'transfer' of the Bernheimer imagination to the
film industry resulted in a unique "Hollywood Japanism". In other words, Japan was first
understood and visually recognized in Los Angeles, especially in Hollywood, through the
perspective of the Bernheimers and the Yamashiro. When Hollywood became synonymous with
filmmaking and needed images of Japan or Asia, the Yamashiro was frequently used as a scene
setting. These same images were then transferred on screen for audiences to construct a similar
imagination of life in Japan. According to the biographical text of the National Register of
Historic Places Registration Form for the Yamashiro published in September 25, 2012, the
Yamashiro “is eligible for listing under Criterion A at the local level of significance as an
important social institution for the burgeoning entertainment industry. It is also significant for its
association with the development of the tourism industry in Hollywood.”
39

38
Toplitsky, a prominent Los Angeles developer, is noted for major properties such as the Biltmore Theatre, Mason Opera House
and the Richfield Oil Building in Downtown Los Angeles. I would also like to note here that it is unclear as to what happened to
the Bernheimer art collection upon the property sale in 1924. The only existing sales catalog for the art collection was the sales
catalogue published for the public auction hosted by the Roy J. Goldenberg gallery in Beverly Hills in 1951. It is unclear where
these objects are currently. Reconstructing this collection would fall outside the scope of this immediate project, however would
be an interesting future academic project. See 'Illustrations and Photographs' for catalog cover.
39
In order to be eligible for Criterion A in the National Register of Historic Places, a property must have one of the four
following characteristics: (1) Property is associated with events that have made a significant contribution to the broad patterns of
our history, (2) Property is associated with the lives of persons significant in our past, (3) Property embodies the distinctive
characteristics of a type, period, or method of construction of represents the work of a master, or possesses high artistic values, or
represents a significant and distinguishable entity whose components lack individual distinction, (4) Property has yielded, or is
likely to yield, information important in prehistory or history. The first and third characteristic criteria were met in the case of
the Yamashiro.
18

The first film by a Hollywood studio was produced by Nestor Motion Picture Company on
October 26, 1911, the same year the Bernheimers began constructing the Yamashiro.
40
Major
motion-picture companies set up production as Southern California became a target destination
for its amenable weather and accessibility to various backdrop settings.
41
Metaphorically, as the
physical construction of Yamashiro took place, the cultural construction of "Hollywood"
intensified. The aesthetic of the Japanese palace became intertwined with the world of fantasy
and make-believe that Hollywood created. This is showcased by a range of cultural phenomena
from the fame of Madame Butterfly to Japanese themes and motifs in 1920s Hollywood films. As
a result of these visual images, it became fashionable for high-society women to gather for tea in
Oriental-style gardens and collect Asian art to display in their homes.

When the Yamashiro was first constructed in 1914, it was architecturally designed as Japanese.
In fact, the Bernheimers spent much of their time traveling to and living in Asia, sometimes
spending upwards of 6 months in Japan, which illustrates that their vision and imitation of
Japanese architecture was based on real, lived experience in Japan.
42
Yet over the course of
time, art historical and architectural scholarship attributes other homes like the Gamble House or
Hollyhock House as being influenced by traditional Japanese aesthetic, thus labeling and
memorializing these homes as more Japanese (than the Yamashiro). In contemporary
architectural discourses, Charles and Henry Greene, the architects of the Gamble House, and
Frank Lloyd Wright, the architect of the Hollyhock House, have become recognized and
celebrated as American Japanism-influenced architects, while ironically Franklin M. Small, the
Yamashiro architect hired by the Bernheimers, is less so celebrated or even, known. A reason to
explain this is that the Yamashiro in the post-Bernheimer years became increasingly associated
with Hollywood becoming fully engulfed within an imagined Hollywood culture, especially
when it transformed into Crittendon’s 400 Club in the mid 1920s.

Although the sincere intention of Small and the Bernheimers was to construct an authentic
Japanese structure (or replication of a Japanese castle), the Yamashiro ironically epitomized a
one-of-a-kind architectural nostalgia for a theatrical and cinematized Japan, rather than marked
as an Japanese-influenced craftsman style home.
43
The common definition of American
Craftsman style in architecture meant that the home focused on (1) the use of natural materials,
(2) attention to aesthetics of the original style (in this case, Japanese), and (3) fine detailing and
craftsmanship. Based on this definition, the Yamashiro should have served as the most prime
example considering they imported natural materials from Japan (including an entire pagoda that
was deconstructed in Japan and reconstructed on site), incorporated traditional practices and
philosophies of Japanese home aesthetics and use of space, and hired local immigrant Japanese
carpenters.
44
Moreover, their home was built to house their Japanese art collection which

40
Robertson (2001), p. 21. The first studio in Hollywood, the Nestor Company, was established by the New Jersey–based
Centaur Company in a roadhouse at 6121 Sunset Boulevard (the corner of Gower), in October 1911.
It later became the Hollywood Film Laboratory, now called the Hollywood Digital Laboratory.
41
Jacobs, Lewis. The Rise of the American Film Harcourt Brace, New York, 1930; p. 85
42
See 'Illustrations and Photographs' for the United States Visa Application for the Bernheimers. I would also like to note here
that this paper falls short of discussing definitions and scope of cultural authenticity, however showcases that the longevity and
lasting physical endurance of the estate proves a need to at least explore it as a scholarly subject.
43
See Oriental Architecture
44
The pacific seaboard, especially Hawaii and California, was the landing place for people from Japan, whether Japanese
immigrants or others who had become imbued enough with Japanese culture to have gone there. Only a few students, seamen,
19

illustrates the Bernheimer’s desire for a certain level of cultural and artistic authenticity in their
Yamashiro imitation.
45
Despite this, for local residents and visitors, the Yamashiro continually
became synonymous with the make-believe, or the recreation of "the sensational Orient" as the
city of Hollywood became not only a place where films were created, but a way of life, a culture,
and complete cultural and artistic creation of its own. This altered imitation, or emulation, of
architecture through Hollywood is what makes the Yamashiro a unique exhibition of Japanese
culture. Hollywood, the adjective, has come to play a larger part of the Bernheimer's home
rooted identity. In this regard, it is difficult to decipher whether the Bernheimer's Yamashiro or
Hollywood's Yamashiro is what remains.

In 1927, a neighboring "Oriental-palatial” site perpetuated motifs of “Hollywood Japanism”. Sid
Grauman’s Chinese Theatre was built just a few short miles from the Bernheimer home, and it
proliferated Hollywoodifed images and cultures of the East.
46
Grauman wanted visitors and
viewers to feel they had been transported to a different place and time. In academia and the
general public's perception, both the Yamashiro and the Chinese Theatre became associated with
exotic ideas of the Orient. Since both sites became synonymous and popularized by celebrities
and the upper class, the general public too became infatuated with the glamorous world of the
'Hollywood Orient'.
47

Well into the 1950s, the Yamashiro continued to functioned as a movie prop and to serve as a
backdrop to various films like Sayonara (1957). The Yamashiro, then and now, represents this
specific fictitious Japanese identity created from the vantage point of the White-American gaze.
This imitated identity is perpetuated and commercialized even though it is far removed from the
authentic Japanese culture.
48
The unknown power that the Bernheimers had in the creation of
"Hollywood Japanism" had uniquely become a characteristic relationship between Los Angeles
and Japan. When White-Americans experienced entering the façade of a Japanese castle leading
to an interior full of 'wondrous treasures' from a far-away land, it would be perceived as factual
and representative of an authentic "way of living everyday life in Japan". Yamashiro audiences
throughout more than a century have found meanings from what they observe, and thus
contribute and influence certain identity markers of Japaneseness or Asianness. Visitors of the
Yamashiro were primarily upper class who had the economic means and social status to publicly
comment on the building (both its interiors and exteriors) thereby conveying their own
assumptions, traditions, and thus conclusions about Japanese culture, or Asian culture broadly to
the general public.
49

and artisans skilled in special craft entered prior to 1882, the year the first of the Asiatic Exclusion Laws were passed; and five
years later less than 1500 Japanese were residing in the United States.
45
Ehrich, Kathryn. "The Japanese House: Material Culture in the Modern Home." Anthropology in Action, Vol. 19, No. 3 (2012)
46
King, Susan. “From Grauman’s to TCL: 90 Years of the Chinese Theatre”, Los Angeles Times, May 17, 2017
47
I use the term Hollywood Orient to refer to an imagined Asian society created by the film industry to glamorize and create
certain visual images of Asian culture, customs and people.
48
See Yoshihara, Mari. Embracing the East: White Women and American Orientalism (2003). I would like to thank Dr.
Kurashige for introducing me to the work of Mari Yoshihara and Constance Chen, who gave me insight into the Japanese and
Japanese American experience in the United States in the early twentieth century. Chen's work on Japanese art dealers in the
United States in particular, was a crucial piece that gave more depth to my arguments.
49
This is similar in the way Vincent Van Gogh had never visited Japan yet he yearned deeply for the imagined life in Japan.
20

1.2 | Art Collectors and Connoisseurs of Pasadena and the 'Others' of Hollywood

In the late nineteenth century, Japanese color woodcut and ukiyo-e prints became exceedingly
popularized, as they offered exceptional designs, were available in large quantities, were
relatively inexpensive, easily portable and effortlessly stored. American collectors of ukiyo-e
prints fell into two categories: (1) Artists and amateurs who often bought in bulk and without
discrimination and (2) serious connoisseur-collectors for whom authenticity and quality were
paramount and had the means and power to spend whatever necessary.
50
The Bernheimers fell in
between these categories as they were not academically or professionally educated in Japanese
art however, had the economic means to purchase high quality works. Much of their collection
seems to have been acquired based on their personal tastes and preferences. Once again, their
case falls in the in-between liminal space, thus resulting in their collection being unclassifiable
and consequently missing from national research archives, including commonly studied art
catalogs. From this, we can surmise their names were not frequently included in dialogue among
other collectors of Japanese art in Los Angeles.

It remains rather puzzling however that the Bernheimer names are virtually nonexistent from art
historical scholarship, considering the amount of wealth they amassed to build such an
extravagant estate and art collection. In stark contrast, collectors in Pasadena are well-
documented and memorialized as “serious and proper” Asian art collectors in academic
scholarship. Ten years after the construction of the Yamashiro, arts patron and Asian art
enthusiast, Grace Nicholson built an architecturally unique residence that was equally
comparable to that of the Bernheimer home. In 1924, she constructed an equivalent 'Chinese-
style imperial' residence in which she lived for a short time before donating the home to the city
of Pasadena for arts and cultural purposes, where it currently functions as the University of
Southern California (USC) Pacific Asia Museum.
51
In fact, the home was referred to as “The
Grace Nicholson Treasure House of Oriental Art”, which is similar to the “The Bernheimer
Wonder House of Asian Treasures”, and is also listed in the National Register of Historic Places,
like the Yamashiro.
52
Much of the Southern California architectural styles throughout the early
twentieth century in Los Angeles echoed the styles of the East Coast such as Mansard, Queen
Anne, Eastlake, Anglo-Colonial Revival, and Beaux-Artes.
53
These styles were picturesque and
superficial in the sense of being engaging facades.
54
Both the Nicholson and Bernheimer's
homes demonstrate examples of an engaging façade in that the exterior architecture design of the
home was constructed to replicate traditional styles of Chinese and Japanese palaces,
respectively. Despite the blatant similarities, the two residences endured polar-opposite fates –
one being remembered as a (public) museum in Pasadena, and the other a (privately owned)
themed-restaurant in Hollywood. Again for this reason, the Yamashiro became entangled with a
Hollywood version of Japan and has not been given the same critical attention. Because the
Nicholson home (museum) was donated to the city, the building transitioned from private
ownership to the public, thus allowing the residence to flourish and establish itself as a
centralized site for Asian art. In 1966, the University of Southern California began managing the

50
Meech, Julia. The Early Years of Japanese Print Collecting in North America.
51
"Grace Nicholson: Collector and Connoisseur." The Wall - Paper News and Interior Decoration (1916-1919) 47, no. 4 (1916)
52
A comparison of the Bernheimer’s Yamashiro to Grace Nicholson's Chinese-style palatial residence will be an interesting topic
to further investigate.
53
Winter, Robert. An Architectural Guidebook to Los Angeles (Revised, 2003)
54
Winter, Robert. An Architectural Guidebook to Los Angeles (Revised, 2003)
21

Grace Nicholson home which allows opportunities for educational research and accessibility
restoration of the collection for advancement of art historical and architectural studies.
55
I
emphasize here that the Bernheimer home too could have been become, remembered and
memorialized as a cultural home-museum for Japanese (and Chinese) art. The Yamashiro was
built ten years before the construction of the Nicholson home, making the Yamashiro possibly
the first Asian art museum in Southern California had the future held an alternative outcome for
the Bernheimer home. Had the home been managed differently by its successive owners, the
Yamashiro could have been turned into as a museum of Japanese and Asian art in Los Angeles
today. However, due to the way in which it continued to be in the private hands and its close
connection to Hollywood, the Bernheimer home never had an opportunity to become associated
with substantive Japanese aesthetics and architecture.

The Bernheimer home's fate was also due in part to the existence of ethnic divides and racism in
a developing immigrant city. With the rise of expansion toward the West came the influx of
immigrants which caused not only blaring divide between the wealthy and working economic
classes, but troubling ethnic divides. The historical demographic of the city of Los Angeles in
the early decades of the twentieth century shows that much of the Jewish communities settled in
the western regions of Los Angeles, which continue to make up most of the Hollywood, West
Hollywood, Mid-Wilshire, and Beverly Hills areas today. Historically, economically and
culturally, Hollywood and Pasadena were vastly different within the regional Los Angeles
landscape. On March 16, 1912, the Los Angeles Herald published a story entitled, Eastern Men
Buy Hill Crest in Hollywood, discusses the sale of the land property to the Bernheimers.
56
As
previously mentioned, the Bernheimer's German nationality caused social isolation during the
First World War. They were further discriminated for their Jewish heritage. The word “Eastern”
in this title suggests a sense of ‘otherness’ of the Bernheimer's and moreover provides a glimpse
into the American viewpoint toward Jewish men as outsiders of the White-American community.
Meanwhile, the Pasadena (and San Marino) areas became known as residential communities for
the elite White-American class as exemplified in many mansion-style homes as well as the
number of documented art collectors. Like the Bernheimers, the immigrant Jewish community
was labeled as the outsiders, which can explain the notion of segregation in the Los Angeles
Herald title. The article explains that the “offer of the Eastern man (Eugene and/or Adolph
Bernheimer) …proved too tempting to be resisted,” and thus the property was sold to them (with
resistance). According to this article, the property was owned by H.J. (Hobart Johnstone)
Whitley and then later purchased by Ross E. Whitley. H. J. Whitley, who has been popularly
coined as the ‘Father of Hollywood’. He was a major real estate developer in Southern
California who essentially created the Hollywood subdivision in the Los Angeles County in the
late 1880s.
57
The existence of noted documentation that the Bernheimers, who were new comers
to Los Angeles, were able to be in close contact with Whitley and his son, Ross Whitley not only
shows that they had the financial means to join the elite members of the Hollywood society, but
signifies that they had possible (unwanted) connections to the greater artistic community in Los

55
The University of Southern California (School of Architecture) has managed the David B. Gamble House in Pasadena,
architected by Charles and Henry Greene since 1966. Two USC Architecture students have lived in the National Historic
Landmark every year.
56
Los Angeles Herald, March 16, 1912, "Eastern Men Buy Hill Crest in Hollywood". See Illustrations and Photographs.
57
He became one of the nation’s most successful land developers and encouraged the western expansion via construction of
frontier railroads from the late 1870s to the early 1890s. The famous “Hollywood” sign traces back to his influential origins.
22

Angeles, including Pasadena.
58
Despite these connections, the close-knit art collecting
community of Pasadena seems to have remained exclusive.

In 1941, a well-known Pasadena Japanese art collector, Judson Metzgar published a list of
selected and catalogued Japanese and Chinese prints that were lent to the Los Angeles County
Museum of Art. In it, Metzgar referred to himself and his fellow collectors as "the collectors of
Southern California".
59
Metzgar’s choice of words stating, "the" collectors, rather than simply
"collectors" implies that the community of Japanese art (specifically print) collectors knew one
another and formed a selective social circle of collectors.
60
Perhaps the Bernheimers could not
penetrate into the Pasadena collecting community, and thus secluded themselves into the
Hollywood community where their art became memorialized as a more fantastic Hollywood
spectacle of the Orient.
61

Overtime, the Yamashiro’s fate has perpetuated exaggerated Orientalist narratives and has
deconstructed the legitimacy of the Bernheimer home and collection. Drawing from these
considerations, it is worth questioning whether the Yamashiro would have been further
legitimized as a serious example of Japanese architecture had the home and the art collection
been relabeled as a museum.
62

58
A deeper analysis and study of Jewish communities in Los Angeles is out of the scope for the project, however this information
provides reasons as to why the Bernheimer’s chose the Hollywood location to build their home, despite the fact that much of the
Asian art collecting community resided in Pasadena.
59
Judson D. Metzgar was more well-known as an art dealer, scholar and lawyer based in Los Angeles (1869-1958). He collected
and dealt Japanese prints around the same timeframe that parts of the Bernheimer collection were auctioned off in the early to
mid-1920s.
60
I would also like to mention here the journal of Lilla Simmons Perry, a Japanese prints collector in Pasadena, reads that she
was in the height of her collecting between 1911 and 1936 upon arriving in California. She coincidentally moved to California
from New York in the same year the Bernheimer brothers had also moved from New York. Her journal can be used for further
in-depth study of Japanese art collectors in Pasadena.
61
In 1943, Metzar published Adventures in Japanese Prints: A Story of Oriental Print Collecting in the Early Years of the
Present Century. Through his texts we are able to get a glimpse into the collecting arena Los Angeles, specifically in relation to
Japanese prints. In Chapter 4 entitled, "My Collection" he mentions that "with the recent development in color photography …,
and [his] easy access to the studios of Hollywood, with the help of a friend [he]produced slides that are pleasing and quite
satisfactory in color..." This shows us that there were exchanges, partnerships, and art-related business conducted between the
Hollywood and Pasadena communities.
62
It is pivotal I include my field notes here regarding a third possible reason as to why the Bernheimers were isolated from this
elite Pasadena collecting society. I am however footnoting it for further study as my research findings are highly inconclusive and
premature. In the winter of 2017, I attended a lecture at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art given by Dr. Christopher Reed,
on his book, Bachelor Japanists: Japanese Aesthetics and Western Masculinities (2016), which expanded my arguments to
critically reobserve the Bernheimers from diverse perspectives, including their sexual identity. Reed argues that Japanese
aesthetics were central to contests over the meanings of masculinity in the West, thus draws attention to the sexual fluidity and
queerness of Japanist communities of writers, collectors, curators, and artists during the early 1900s. Like the title of Reed's
book, the Bernheimer brothers were consistently referred to and headlined as "bachelors" of Hollywood according to several
newspaper articles in the Los Angeles Times and Los Angeles Herald between the years 1912 to 1923. Perhaps the most
interesting article that alludes to this notion was an article published in the Los Angeles Times on November 15, 1914, entitled
"Palatial Home is Finished" with two subheadings that read, "Bachelors' House Essence of Japanese Art. Women May Never Be
Guests There, Says Rumor" (See Illustrations). The two subheadings suggest that either women were not allowed due to the
exclusivity of a "men's club" considering the women's suffrage movement and right to vote was granted in 1911 in California
(1920 in America-at-large), or that women were undesired or unwelcomed as it was an opportunity for the gay men's community
to come together for social gatherings and events at the Bernheimer home. Based on my research findings, both brothers did not
marry or bequeath their wealth to any known heirs (only siblings and nurse) and lived secluded private lives, which adds to the
difficulty of finding historical material for research. Considering the strict gender roles, perhaps the Bernheimers did not want to
draw attention to their personal lives that rebeled rigid socially accepted norms, and thus secluded themselves from the
mainstream public and sought a gay community, such as communities within entertainment and thespian groups. This also may
explain their desire to start anew in California, away from New York's rigid high society, despite leaving behind their brothers,
Charles and Otto Bernheimer in New York. Queer studies and the evolution of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender
23

63

(LGBT) history in historic Hollywood would be a fantastic research topic through the lens of the Bernheimers and the Yamashiro
especially considering that West Hollywood is considered a prominent gay community in the United States. I would like to thank
Dr. Reed with whom I spoke briefly at his lecture, as well as Dr. Kendall Brown who suggested I reconsider this possibility to
further explain their exclusion from art collecting groups in Los Angeles. See Dr. Reed's Bachelor Japanists: Japanese
Aesthetics and Western Masculinities (2016) and Los Angeles Times article, "Bernheimer Will Names Sisters, Brothers, Nurse"
on Jan 16, 1925.
63
(Top Image) Aerial perspective of Yamashiro, c. 1940s. Yamashiro Collection of Photographs.
24

Chapter 2: Yamashiro as Space and Spectacle in America

““To European architects brought up on the traditions of
stone and brick construction, our Japanese method of building
with wood and bamboo seems scarcely worthy to be ranked as
architecture. It is but quite recently that a competent student
of Western architecture has recognized and paid tribute to the
remarkable perfection of our great temples. Such being the
case as regards our classic architecture, we could hardly
expect the outsider to appreciate the subtle beauty - its
principles of construction and decoration being entirely
different from those of the West.”

-Okakura Kazuko, 1906,
“The Book of Tea"

The nineteenth century image of the Orient was constructed not just in romantic literature and
colonial administrations, but also in new procedures with which Americans and Europeans began
to organize the cultural hierarchy of the world. This model of representation particularly was
established through popularized world's fairs and international exhibitions and gave a central
place to the image and generalized public perception of the non-Western world. Several studies
have pointed out and attributed to the importance of this specific construction of 'otherness' to the
manufacturing and production of national identity. Traditionally, the early twentieth century
American museum housed and displayed Asian art and relics in anthropological or
archaeological sections, which in turn emphasized and highlighted a foreign or indigenous way
of life.
64
Chang Tan argues that when Americans began to collect 'Oriental' art and antiques,
individuals and institutions used Asian art to channel their ambivalent relations to colonialism, to
shape and validate their own positions in the grand narrative of 'Western civilization', and to
construct and solidify their sphere of influence. In other words, the decisions to acquire and
display Asian art in American museums were never free from ethnic and cultural politics.
65

Therefore, the collection, classification and display of Asian art and artifacts have historically
been entangled with sociopolitical discourses in the United States. While the collection of Asian
objects grew, debates among scholars, curators, and connoisseurs concerning classifications and
definitions arose as to where these objects belonged within the Western cultural matrix.
66

Non-White Americans encountered in the West what one might call, the age of the world
exhibitions, or rather, the age of the world-as-exhibition.
67
This perspective of museology was
most evident in the exhibitions of ‘traditional or Oriental’ art from Asia, which remained the
only authentic Asian art in the eyes of Western connoisseurs and curators during most of the

64
I would like to highlight that I am not generalizing all museums rather I am specifically referring to the early twentieth century
museum institution in America. See "Ideas of Asia in the Museum" (Vol. 28) Journal of the History of Collections (2016).
65
Chang Tan, "Telling Global Stores, One at a Time: The Politics and Poetics of Exhibiting Asian Art", 2015
66
Chen, Constance J.S. "Merchants of Asianess: Japanese Art Dealers in the United States in the Early Twentieth
Century." Journal of American Studies 44, no. 1 (2010): pp. 19-45. I would like to thank Dr. Lon Kurashige for suggesting
Chen's essay which provoked me to critically consider the historic (and contemporary) Japanese-American community and their
perspective on American Japanists and Japanese art exhibited in Los Angeles. It also spurred an idea to approach the affect on
the development of the American museum through the development of world's fairs.
67
Referencing same phrase from Heidegger
25

twentieth century. By understanding the display of Asian art in the early twentieth century
museum model in American from within this framework, it suggests that the notion of exhibiting
'ethnic' art in an established museum institution was born, and possibly mimicked, through the
world's fairs exhibitions. Like many of international displays, the Yamashiro contributed to the
representation of otherness in American culture at this time. Considering that many American
Japanists traveled to the various World’s Fair expositions, it is possible that the Bernheimers also
attended the fairs for inspiration, ideas, and new art pieces for their home. In other words, the
Bernheimers took Japanism one step further to bring the World's Fairs to their home making
their home an extension of a spectacle or museum exhibition and unmistakably, unique.
68

The 1893 World's Fair Columbian Exposition in Chicago and the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair are
the two prime examples that are popularly discussed among scholars to illuminate the rapid
expansion of Japanism in the United States. The World's Fair in Chicago was the first fair in
which Japan had exhibited an enormous Japanese Pavilion housing arts and cultural artifacts.
69

This exhibition also showcased real Japanese women, dressed as the much popularized and
famed "geisha girl" to promote a specific national and artistic image.
70
This ubiquitous image of
the Japanese woman as a peaceful, feminized and lovely aesthetic became indistinguishable from
the nation's cultural identity, and thus became intertwined with the American view of Japan.
71

Likewise, Japan's exhibit "Fair Japan" in the 1904 St. Louis Fair was "by far the most unique
exhibit of any foreign country," according to The Official History of the Fair, St. Louis, 1904,
which also claimed: "Their ideas of art are radically different from those of any other
nationality."
72
However, what is less explored, least discussed, and perhaps the most correlated
and directly linked to furthering our understanding of the Bernheimer's Yamashiro as museum
exhibition and spectacle, is the 1894 California Midwinter International Exposition and later the
1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco.

In 1893, M. H. de Young, a San Francisco local who attended the Chicago World Fair, realized
that California could majorly benefit from hosting its own world fair and envisioned a world fair
in the middle of winter, where people from the East coast and all over the world could enjoy the
amenable weather of California.
73
In the midst of depression in the nineteenth century, de Young
believed that a World’s Fair in San Francisco would stimulate the local economy with a grander
vision to promote California as a land of endless opportunities.

Support for de Young’s plan came immediately from all over the county, resulting in over 4,000
exhibitors committed to move from Chicago to San Francisco in support of the fair. The 1894
California Midwinter International Exposition displayed pavilions referred to as 'ethnological

68
See United States Visa Applications in ‘Illustrations and Photographs’
69
Conant, Ellen P. Challenging Past and Present : The Metamorphosis of Nineteenth-Century Japanese Art; See Chapter 13,
"Japan 'Abroad' at the Chicago Exposition, 1893" (2006).
70
I reference Dr. Mizuta-Lippit's notes here to directly illustrate for deeper understanding of the display of people as a form of
memorializing visual culture and understanding of Japan and Japanese people. One of the controversial themes of the World's
Fair was the exhibition of people and culture. People were on display as a mode of anthropological means to understand a
foreign culture. As mentioned in Dr. Mizuta-Lippit's notes, "the "geisha girl(s)" is an expression that was widely used to describe
the geisha at fairs and in print. The diminutive phrase further objectifies the geisha, rendering them smaller and more like
artworks than people." (Mizuta, Miya Elise." "Fair Japan": On Art and War at the Saint Louis World's Fair, 1904". Discourse,
Vol. 28, N.1 (2006)
71
Mizuta, Miya Elise.""Fair Japan": On Art and War at the Saint Louis World's Fair, 1904". Discourse, Vol. 28, N.1 (2006)
72
See Mizuta; and see Hanson, John Wesley. The Official History of the Fair, St. Louis, 1904 (St. Louis, 1904). pp 369 and 373
73
Lipsky, William (2002). San Francisco's Midwinter Exposition. Arcadia Publishing. p. 7.
26

exhibits' that showcased international cultures representing various regions of the world.
Developed for educational purpose and as form of public entertainment, the ethnological
exhibitions showcased groups of individuals from various places all over the world in exhibits
designed to mimic their homes. In fact, similarly to the geisha girls at the Chicago World's Fair,
the staged inhabitants of the exhibits would remain in the exhibit installation until the end of the
fair. The Midwinter Exposition of 1894 featured several ethnological expositions including the
Hawaiian Village, the Dahomeyan African Village, the Arizona Indian Village, the Sioux Indian
Village, the Oriental Village, a German Village, a Samoan Village, the Eskimo/Inuit Village and
Japanese Village. The use of real people as displays sparked controversy, especially from various
racial communities that identified with ethnic groups on display. For example, controversy
surrounded the Japanese Village regarding the specific use of rickshaws. George Turner (G.T.)
Marsh, a businessman interested in Japanese culture, had originally hired Japanese men to pull
American fair-goers around in rickshaws. San Francisco’s Japanese population criticized the
treatment of the staged people living in the exhibitions and the portrayal of the Japanese
community. As a result, Marsh avoided the problem by hiring non-Asians to "darken their faces
and dress them in oriental garb" and pose as a Japanese person.
74

As noted in The Official History of the California Midwinter International Exposition, the
Japanese Village and Tea Garden and Oriental Village, funded by Marsh, in Golden Gate Park
was a major visual spectacle to be seen similarly to the Yamashiro. During the time of the fair,
Marsh and Toshio Aoki, a Japanese artist, designed and maintained the village as an attraction.
The village consisted of small man-made waterfalls, small lakes, the Taiko Bashi (drum bridge),
and various Japanese-native plants and birds. As a part of the exhibit, Japanese women dressed
up in traditional dress, and served Japanese tea and "sweetmeats". At the time, the exhibit
accepted entry for twenty-five cents an adult and ten cents for children, tea and treats included.
What is perhaps interesting to highlight is the deliberate difference between the Oriental Village,
featuring Turkish, Greek, Algerian, and Egyptian cultures, and the Japanese Village.
75
This
distinction between the "Japanese" village and the "Oriental" village is key in that Japanese
culture was socially and culturally elevated above those classified as Oriental at this time.
76
This
was due in part to the viewpoint that Japanese art and culture carried a more sophisticated taste
with the rise of Japonisme in Western Europe and Japanism in the United States through the
World's Fairs.

Within the context of Japanese art in California at this time, the 1915 Panama- Pacific World's
Fair Exposition was also the year in which Japan showcased a renewed image of Japanese
aesthetics at the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco. Prior to the 1894 and 1915 World Fair’s,
Japan enthusiasts, art collectors, and other fair visitors had to travel outside of California to
participate in the spectacle. This suggests that (1) one had to have the economic means to travel
to these world fair sites, both nationally and internationally, and (2) that only those who attended
were able to make claims about Japan. I would like to emphasize here that these two World's

74
The Official History of the California Midwinter International Exposition. San Francisco: H.S. Crocker Company. 1895
75
The central axis of the exhibit was Cairo street, based on an Egyptian market street. The street was lined by storefronts and
inhabited by shopkeepers and people paid to enact daily street life, including a fortune-teller. Beyond the Egyptian-inspired Cairo
Street was a Turkish Theater and Dance hall, which featured performances by Turkish dancers. Outside the front of the building,
a small bazaar-style marketplace where Turkish, Greek, and Algerian vendors sold various wares.
76
See Edward Said's, Orientalism and The Official History of the California Midwinter International Exposition. San Francisco:
H.S. Crocker Company. 1895.
27

Fairs allowed Californians to attend and participate in the spectacle of the fair. The Bernheimers
did not move to California until 1911, which could speculate that the 1894 World’s Fair
Exposition could have been one of their first encounters with California. I highlight here that the
establishment of the Japanese Tea Gardens in Golden Gate Park for the 1894 California
Midwinter International Exposition proceeding the 1893 Chicago Exposition World's Fair serves
as evidence that Japanism had spread throughout the United States, and especially to California.
Considering that Japan had put together and exhibited a well-marketed and well-designed
pavilion, showcases that American's grew intrigued by Japanese art and aesthetics.
77

2.1) Recreating the Japanese Pavilion of the World's Fair at the Bernheimer Home

Amid the Yamashiro construction years from 1911 to 1914, other wealthy American home
residences influenced by Japanese architecture, gardens, and World's Fairs were being
highlighted in exclusive magazines like House and Garden and Country Life Magazine. These
publications were marketed toward upper class Americans who stayed in vogue with art and
home (interior and exterior) design. The Bernheimers hired New York architect Franklin M.
Small to design a replication of a Japanese castle on twelve acres of mossy gardens on Sycamore
Avenue to house their growing Japanese art collection. With three-hundred steps leading to the
terraced manicured Japanese gardens, his mansion design was adorned with rafters lacquered in
gold and tipped with bronze dragons, which are assumed to be imported objects (part of the
Bernheimer art collection) from Asia
1
. At a price-point valued at almost two million dollars, the
cascading landscaped grounds were filled with waterfalls, koi fish ponds, and even a private
guest house displaying birds and monkeys.

In an essay written by the Yamashiro architect, Franklin M. Small, he writes that the home
consciously drew its inspiration from traditional Japanese architecture from the latter part of the
sixteenth and early part of the seventeenth century. He entitled his essay “Yama Shiro” (which
is closer to the direct Japanese translation) and writes that, “the chief aim in the design of ‘Yama
Shiro’ has been, while following closely, both in plan and detail, the best models of Japanese
architecture”.
78
Through his deliberate research, he completed construction of the Bernheimer
home in 1914, which incorporated antique walls and other raw materials imported from Japan
including a 600-year-old pagoda that was deconstructed in Kyoto and reconstructed in
Hollywood. Small’s conscientious reconstruction of an entire Japanese pagoda and intentional
replication of a Japanese castle in Hollywood is what makes the Yamashiro unique, and the
embodiment of the ‘authentic’. Small’s architectural plan and aesthetic strategy was
authentically and purposely modeled after Japanese architecture. In comparison, the
architectural sites we commonly acknowledge and attribute as “Japanese-influenced” in Los
Angeles, such as Frank Lloyd Wright’s Hollyhock House or R.M. Schindler’s the Gamble
House, show only influences rather than sincere attempted replication.
79
In this regard, the
Yamashiro is the closest example of Japanism architecture in Los Angeles.

77
Smith, James (2005). San Francisco's Lost Landmarks. Sanger, California: World Dancer Press. pp. 112–113
78
Small, Franklin M. “Yama Shiro”, Country Life (1926); Collection of Pacific Palisades Historical Society
79
Manuel Almodovar Melendo, J., Ramon Jimenez Verdejo, J., Dominguez Sanchez de la Blanca, I. “Similarities Between R.M.
Schindler House and Descriptions of Traditional Japanese Architecture”. Journal of Asian Architecture and Building
Engineering, Volume 13 (2014) Issue 1 pp. 41-48.
28

Moreover, the Bernheimers propelled the exposure of Japanese and Asian art in Los Angeles, as
no other such documented collection of its size existed prior to 1911. I propose here the
Yamashiro presented one of the first public Japanese art collections in Los Angeles to be
displayed, as it was reported that their mansion drew crowds on weekends and special occasions
at a twenty-cent admission price between 1921 to 1932.

Redefining the museum in this context goes beyond the functionality as a specific space that
presents art and artifacts in a more or less neutral manner. While museums are historical entities
that generally have a highly complex structure, the structure itself does not become its subject
matter since that would impede its functionality. The Yamashiro, as an organic structure, is not
bound by the fundamental principle governing "conventional or typical" museums. The interior
refurbishment not only serves to reconstruct a specific time in history but reflects the
Bernheimers attempt to reconstruct an even later time in history. This idea is based on the
perception that the museum building is a sophisticated organism whose individual parts
complement and interact with one another in a specific way. Such a museum imposes and
continues to impose special conditions for the presentation of the art collection. This means that
the most museums present physical modes of representations that point via the material stored
inside them to something outside themselves. "That is, they function like pictures through which
one looks, almost as if through a window, into an illusionary room, into history, the history of art
or some of its fields."
80

From this framework, the Yamashiro architectural structure itself is a part of the art collection, as
many of the structure’s details provide the framework for which this collection exists. It
provides a lens through which we understand the history of collecting and the development of
Asian art collections in West Coast America, in order to re-imagine and have a greater
understanding of Asia’s artistic role in Los Angeles’s past. Most importantly, the Yamashiro
shows how the intense power of personal nostalgia and memory of one individual's past affects
the creation of mass visual culture, and ultimately the display of an entire culture. The
Yamashiro exemplifies how these objects reaffirm lasting narratives and images of what is
Japanese culture or Japaneseness in the greater context of the United States.

2.2) Liminality in Architectural Space: Memorializing Space as a Museum

Dwellings and living environments from our past serve as ethnographic material richly imbued
with folk wisdom.
81
In traditional Japanese architectural philosophy, the home space is made up
of ‘ephemeral components of atmosphere'.
82
In essence, each of these components fabricates an
invisible link that crafts a fluid interplay between interior and exterior spaces. This specific
boundary space formed by these components have given Japanese homes a distinctive style and
character. From this frame of reference, we can examine the Bernheimer home as a lived 'space'
and 'place', as a type of living museum, that presents deeper conversations about Japanese art and

80
See Museums and Memory by Susan A. Crane (2000) and Thinking Utopia: Steps into Other Worlds by Michael Fehr and
Thomas W. Rieger
81
Nakagawa Takeshi, The Japanese House in Space, Memory, and Language, Translated by Geraldine Harcourt
82
Michel Foucault builds upon Gaston Bachelard’s work and the descriptions of phenomenologists in regards to the idea that we
do not live in homogeneous and empty spaces, but on the contrary in space “imbued with quantities …and fantasmatic”
(heterotopic space); Foucault, M. Of Other Spaces (1986) Diacritics, 16(1), 22-27.
29

visual culture housed in Los Angeles. Moreover, it shows how the exterior architecture and
memory of the art objects exists in this ‘ephemeral atmosphere’, or components, that make up
the Yamashiro.

Based on the analysis of the Bernheimer's perspective of the World's Fairs and expansion of
Japanism in the West Coast, there is great significance in reconsidering whether the Yamashiro
would have been further legitimized as an imperative example of Japanist architecture had the
home and art collection been reclassified and re-understood as a museum, as I previously
suggest. In order to identify and reapproach the Yamashiro as a type of living museum, we must
investigate the shifting representations and performances from definitions of ‘space’ and the
normative conventions and qualities of what makes a museum, a museum. Consequently the
liminality exists within the architectural body of the Yamashiro that houses a collection of
Japanese and other Asian art within American culture.

I must emphasize here that the Yamashiro
challenges and falls outside the traditional convention notions of a museum, however provokes
new modes of thinking to expand these concepts to include home museums like the Yamashiro.

There is a belief that (objects in) collections and museum spaces exist to hold objects from the
past, and that 'this space' therefore constitutes a specific social phenomenon with a unique role
within society.
83
It is within this physical (and figurative) space we try to find deeper meanings
of individual objects, the significance of the physical museum as cultural institution and the
processes through which objects become components of collections.
84
Simply put, the essence
of collecting, or the formations of objects, is a fundamental basis for leaving behind a history.
What we experience as memories are in fact artificial constructions of our own imagination built
around retained experiences that we attempt to make alive again.
85
If we apply and project this
theoretical framework onto the context of the Yamashiro, we (as the audience) are in a sense
reimagining what the function, purpose, and life was like for the Bernheimer home in its early
years. In this regard, the Yamashiro is tethered in liminal aesthetics in architecture. By 'liminal
aesthetics', I refer to scholarship that reveals the ways in which aesthetics bear out critique of
cultural and identity formations and as an embodiment that renders the historical past through
sensory experience. Through this experience, intersection of memory and place offers us a
means of understanding such architectural sites that are produced by our imaginations. Through
these considerations, the shift from 'authentic' architectural home to 'kitsch' themed restaurant
challenges and redefines Yamashiro's architectural space and functionality.
86
Yamashiro as a
lived space, and now a functional space, presents deeper analysis on the functionality of
'memory' that exists in the ‘ephemeral atmosphere'.

83
Through this, collection studies has emerged as a field, which has found a place in the broader scope of cultural studies only in
the course of the last decade or so, which is a recent process to approaching art history.
84
Pearce, Susan M. Interpreting Objects and Collections. Routledge, London ;New York, 1994;2012
85
See Geoffrey Sonnabend's Theory of Memory
86
I define the term, "kitsch" as to refer to something viewed as not substantive academic subject but merely belonging to popular
culture only.
30

Conclusion

Vivian to Cyril: “And so, if you desire to see a Japanese
effect, you will not behave like a tourist and go to Tokio. On
the contrary, you will stay home, and steep yourself in the
work of certain Japanese artists, and then, when you have
absorbed the spirit of their style and caught their imaginative
manner of vision, you will go some afternoon and sit in the
Park or stroll down Piccadilly, and if you cannot see an
absolutely Japanese effect there, you will not see it anywhere."

- Oscar Wilde, "Intentions, by Oscar Wilde: The Decay of
Lying, Pen, Pencil and Poison, The Critic as Artist, The Truth
of Masks", 1894

“[In Japan, natural wood represents] the beginning and the
end, youth and old age. Beautiful wood that is old is not
beautiful simply because it is beautiful, but also because it has
gone through a long journey, or we say a vital experience”

-Bruno Taut, 1906

Captivated by its structural beauty, French painter Edouard Detaille made an ironic statement
about the Gare d'Orsay in Paris that "[the] magnificent railroad station look[ed] like a 'palace of
fine arts'. Unbeknownst to Detaille's imagination, the Gare d'Orsay would eventually become
the Musée d'Orsay in 1986, almost a century later. The Musée d'Orsay is a chief example of a
museum in which the original function of the building was not planned to be a museum, rather
designed as a train station. Detaille used the term 'palace' or 'palace of fine art' to which he
referred to the grandeur and elegant extravagance of the exterior and interior architecture of the
building. It is a unique choice of word(s) considering that the Bernheimers also referred to their
home as the Yamashiro Palace. The term, 'palace museum' has become a commonly used and
coined term that is understood by academic and general audiences to refer to museums that are
housed in former royal palaces around the world. It would be a major stretch to call the
Bernheimer home a true royal palace, as the Bernheimers were not royal heirs, however
considering their extraordinary financial success, prominent social positioning within Los
Angeles communities, and their ownership of luxury goods and furniture, the Bernheimers were
undeniably a part of the upper echelon of Southern California.
87

87
Based on genealogical records, Adolph and Eugene Bernheimer are linked to Maier Bernheimer (paternal grandfather) and
Lehmann Bernheimer (paternal uncle), who were art and antique dealers in Germany. I would like to note here the existence of
the Bernheimer-Haus, also known as the Bernheimer Palace, by which was in Munich today. In 1864, Lehmann Bernheimer
founded a business for high-quality textiles in Munich’s old town and expanded his business with the manufacture of luxury
goods for in the living area. By 1882, he became the provider of goods to the Royal Bavarian family, which allowed him to take
over the old building located in the Altstadt, which still held its medieval floor plans, and planned to turn it into a representative
of new architecture, and thus it became the Bernheimer Haus. Now a residential and commercial building located on
Lenbachplatz 3, the structure was constructed between 1888 and 1889 by architect Friedrich von Thiersch with a neo-barouque
style façade, making the building one of the first of its kind, and later the most influential for all other buildings of its type in
Munich. In contemporary times, the building is protected as cultural heritage. Little information of their connection to the
Bernheimer family in Germany is mentioned, despite the family's connection to art collecting in the late nineteenth to early
twentieth century. Perhaps this was caused by Leopold Bernheimer's (father) to immigrate in the United States while Lehmann
Bernheimer remained in Germany. (Klein, Dieter. Martin Dülfer: Wegbereiter der deutschen Jugendstilarchitektur (in German)
31

Strikingly similar to the Yamashiro story and history, the Gare d'Orsay served different functions
and purposes. The station later housed the 1900 Universelle World’s Fair Exhibition, which was
the site's first time, or 'experience or encounter', as a museum (or exhibition) space. During the
Second World War, it was used as a mailing centre for sending packages to prisoners of war,
then those same prisoners were welcomed there on their returning home after liberation.
Astonishingly similar to the Yamashiro, the station was even used as a film set in the 1930s, and
as a meeting location for the Renaud-Barrault Theatre Company and for auctioneers.
88
From this
point of reference, the Yamashiro too, could have been transformed into a museum especially
for its private art collection and current protected status of the structure as a cultural heritage site.

When we think of the term, "art collection", it is rare we think of the actual building as included
in it. For the Yamashiro, I propose that the building is much a part of the collection as its
objects. A total of 230 objects (perhaps more) are listed in the sales catalog of the Bernheimer
collection from the public estate sale held at the Roy J. Goldenberg Galleries in Beverly Hills on
September 17, 1951. This illustrates and demonstrates the immense depth and magnitude of the
art collection, and moreover the Bernheimer's admiration for and commitment to Japanese and
Asian art. Despite this, the Bernheimer collection is essentially missing from large archival
databases and library systems in the United States, such as the Frick Collections’ Archives
Directory for the History of Collecting in America as well as the California State Archives,
which are two of the largest archival and historical databases of art and people in California. The
unfortunate reality of examining the history of Asian art or such collections in America, is that it
has many times been miscategorized, mislabeled, or forgotten. The classification of these works
become murky and unclear as it begs the question: is it Asian, American, or Asian American art?
A discussion of such material culture studies is beyond the purview of this thesis, but it is an
unavoidable topic when examining such topics related to a history like the Bernheimers and their
art collection.
89
This provokes us to perhaps critically consider the difference between ‘museum
art’ and ‘Hollywood art’. Is there a clear distinction, or is it purely dependent on how certain
periods in history view art?

The Yamashiro structure itself straddles between imagination and reality, because in many ways,
the Bernheimer’s curated very personal and distinctive ideas about Japanese architecture, art, and
a 'way of life in Japan' in Los Angeles. The Yamashiro originally functioned as a home, but can
be understood within the context as a heritage home museum, despite its current function as a
theme-restaurant. From this framework, the Yamashiro presents larger implications for thinking
about Asian art and architecture in the United States and museums as spaces of memory
construction. The contemporary definition of the museum in America must have the ‘ability to
educate’ which furthers the Yamashiro from being classified as a museum. The 'Yamashiro as a

pp. 24–25, and Baudenkmäler München (in German). Bayerisches Landesamt für Denkmalpflege, p. 460.) In 2015, Sotheby's
London auctioned part of the Bernheimer family collection from two centuries of "Old Masters and 19th-century paintings,
ancient sculpture and works of art, furniture, decorative arts, rugs, carpets and wine," as described by Sotheby's.
88
In 1975, the train station was threatened with destruction and replacement by a large modern hotel complex, thus discussions
arose over its installation as a new museum, in which all of the arts from the second half of the nineteenth century would be
represented. The official decision to build the Musée d'Orsay was made in 1977. The building was classified a Historical
Monument in 1978 and a civil commission was created to oversee the construction and organization of the museum. The museum
officially opened to the public on 1986. Information has been taken from the Musée d'Orsay website.
89
In Deborah L. Krohn’s Beyond Terminology, or, the Limits of ‘Decorati ve Arts', she looks at the history of the term “decorative
arts’ and what it has come to mean as a field of academic study as well as a collecting area.
32

home' and 'Yamashiro as a part of the art collection' cannot be classified into any one specific
category. It is rather a unique category by itself. The transformative journey of the space has
allowed the collection to become imagined, making it an imagined home. Referring to Oscar
Wilde's book, "Intentions, by Oscar Wilde: The Decay of Lying, Pen, Pencil and Poison, The
Critic as Artist, The Truth of Masks", his character Vivian poignantly describes the powerful
role of the imagination:

"Art begins with abstract decoration, with purely imaginative and pleasurable
work dealing with what is unreal and non-existent. This is the first stage. Then
Life becomes fascinated with this new wonder, and asks to be admitted into the
charmed circle. Art takes life as part of her rough material, recreates it, and
refashions it in fresh forms, is absolutely indifferent to fact, invents, imagines,
dreams, and keeps between herself and reality the impenetrable barrier of
beautiful style, of decorative or ideal treatment. The third stage is when Life gets
the upper hand, and drives Art out into the wilderness. That is the true decadence,
and it is from this that we are now suffering…

…Paradox though it may seem—and paradoxes are always dangerous things—it
is none the less true that Life imitates art far more than Art imitates life."

Throughout the last century, the Yamashiro itself has undergone an extensive transformational
journey. The architectural site and its remaining contents provide a window into critically
understanding where Japan (and the American imagination of Japan) fits into the American art
historical context as a cultural import. This interplay of literal and figurative relics from our past
allows us to examine how our society documents and writes a cultural history. Firstly from the
viewpoint as strictly the Bernheimer home and secondly as the Yamashiro, the estate gives us an
opportunity to reflect on the fundamental questions pertaining to how private collections of
objects and memories play a subconscious role in the development of the 'museum' and
representations of cultural uniqueness in the United States. It is furthermore an opportunity to
understand how we interpret meaning from people's imaginations from not only an academic
perspective, but as a way to understand the history of human imagination, and the extraordinary
power of it.
90

90
Afterthoughts: In 2018, a reemergence of a distinct “Los Angeles Japanism” in which Japanese contemporary art and aesthetic
is now housed in Los Angeles’s Arts District through the showcasing of Japanese contemporary artists as well as the opening of
the Japan House, a new cultural gallery space, in Hollywood. Whether it was Nicholson's residence or the Bernheimer's
residence, the commonality between both art collectors were their desire to design the perfect architectural style to match their
beloved collection. This brought me to question the relationship between art collectors and the physical gallery, or display space,
itself. In the spring of 2017, Christie's opened a new flagship space for the West Coast region and Los Angeles clientele (or art
collectors) in Beverly Hills. The gallery space was designed by Kulapat Yantrasat, who is particularly known for collaboration
and consultancy work for art museums, libraries, public art spaces, and cultural institutions. Yantrasat said that it is crucial "to
create an atmosphere where good art can meet good people". This was true in the case of the Bernheimer home as it was built for
the personal enjoyment and preservation of their collection. The practice of collecting and the lives of art collectors, whether
historic or contemporary times, are the same.

33

Illustrations and Photographs

91

92

91
The Yamashiro presented one of the first public Japanese art collections in Los Angeles to be displayed as it was reported that
their mansion drew local crowds on weekends and special occasions at a twenty-cent admission price between 1921 to 1932.
Yamashiro Collection of Photographs. I would like to thank Nicole Galati, the Sales and Marketing Manager at the Yamashiro
Restaurant for sharing with me some of this historic photographs. A majority of these photos can be viewed on the Yamashiro
website under the Historical Archives webpage.
34

93 94

95

92
Man riding a bicycle. According to Yamashiro Restaurant website, this bicycle is still in the possession of the Yamashiro.
Yamashiro Collection of Photographs
93
Adolph Bernheimer (second from Right) with guests of Yamashiro. Yamashiro Collection of Photographs (c. 1915-1920s)
94
Imported Pagoda was reconstructed onsite (c. 1911-1925)
35

96

97

95
Interior Garden of the Estate, Postcard from Postcard from UCLA IMLab Media Archive of Postcards of the Bernheimer
Residence Collection, c. 1920s. Yamashiro Collection of Photographs
96
Interior of the Yamashiro; Currently converted to the reception area of the restaurant; Adorned with tapestries and silk screen
paintings that were part of the Bernheimer Collection (c. 1920s-1930s). Yamashiro Collection of Photographs
36

98

97
Interior of the Yamashiro; (c. 1920s-1930s). Yamashiro Collection of Photographs
98
Interior of the Yamashiro; (c. 1920s-1930s) Yamashiro Collection of Photographs; Same room pictured from two perspectives.
37

99

99
(Top): Adolph Bernheimer is pictured on the cover of the Public Auction Sale Catalog held on September 17, 1951 at the Roy
J. Goldenberg Galleries in Beverly Hills. I would like to deeply thank Dr. Kendall Brown for entrusting me with this information
38

in which he was able to uncover with the help of Randy Young of the Pacific Palisades Historical Society. There is little
information of the actual contents of the collection as no reconstruction of the collection has been produced. This public auction
sale catalog provides a glimpse into the breadth of the collection for future understanding of Asian art collections and collecting
in Los Angeles for future researchers. (Bottom): Advertisement in the Los Angeles Times on September 3, 1951, publicizing the
public sale. (This page): pp. 10 and 11 of the public auction catalog in which shows a photograph image of the screen panels
(see following footnote).
39

100

100
Interior of the Yamashiro; (c. 1920s-1930s) Yamashiro Collection of Photographs; Based on the public catalog as well as
these photographs of the interior, (silk screen) panel paintings and/or panel designs adorned many of the walls of the Yamashiro.
40

101

101
Interior of the Yamashiro; (c. 1920s-1930s) Yamashiro Collection of Photographs
41

102

103

102
Los Angeles Herald, March 16, 1912, "Eastern Men Buy Hill Crest in Hollywood, ProQuest Database Archives
103
Los Angeles Evening Herald, April 25, 1917, “German ‘Arsenal’ in Hollywood Only Pretty Residence”, ProQuest Database
Archive
42

104

104
Los Angeles Herald, October 16, 1918, “Victory Honor Roll”, No. 299, ProQuest Database Archives
43

105

105
Article written by Franklin Small, architect, in Country Life Magazine (March 1927), pp. 48-50; See Chapter 2.
44

106

106
(Left) Los Angeles Times, June 20, 1921, "Fete To Be Held at Show Place"; (Right) Los Angeles Times, January 11, 1914
45

107

107
Los Angeles Times (1886-1922); Nov 15, 1914; "Palatial Home is Finished" ProQuest Historical Newspapers
46

108

108
United States Passport Applications (1795-1925); Adolph Bernheimer, at age 49, travels to China, Japan, Hong Kong, and
Philippines for six months from Los Angeles sailing on board the Empress of Japan on May 4, 1916 from Port of Vancouver,
Canada.
47

109

109
United States Passport Applications (1795-1925); Adolph Bernheimer, at age 57, travels to abroad including Egypt, India,
China, and Japan from Port of New York on January 30, 1924.

48

110

110
U.S. Passport Applications (1795-1925); Eugen Bernheimer, at age 29 ¾, applies for a visa in order to travel abroad and
return to the United States within a two year period.

49

111

111
From the California State Library Online Database Catalog, Print (Postcard) 3 ½ x 5 1/2in, Aerial Illustration of the
Bernheimer Residence, Hollywood, California, Unspecified Date of 194?
50

Acknowledgements

“Once upon a time, there was a girl who lived in a castle.

The castle was in a museum.

When children came to the museum, they pressed as close as
they could to glass globe in which the castle quietly sat. For
they had heard if they looked hard enough, they could see the
girl in the castle inside the museum.

…In her room and in her dreams,
You keep her company in a magical world.”

-“The Girl in the Castle inside the Museum”
Illustrated Children’s Story by Kate Bernheimer
(2008)

My parents had their first date at the Yamashiro restaurant on Friday, July 15, 1983. It is rather
strange and serendipitous that 35 years later I would stumble upon the Yamashiro story through
my academic interests. Through this writing process, I realized two things: 1) the overwhelming
amount of courage and conviction one needs to formulate a thesis and 2) the overwhelming
depth of humility and gratitude one experiences after attempting it.

First and foremost, I deeply thank my thesis committee chair, Dr. Miya Mizuta Elise Lippit, for
entrusting me with such a precious research topic and giving me the platform to nurture it into
my master’s thesis. She instilled confidence in me whenever I grew doubtful of myself and
planted the wisdom, compassion and intellectual acumen I needed to see the project to
completion. I thank her for providing the critical eye, poignant questions, and steady guidance
throughout my time at USC. I also give paramount thanks and appreciation to my thesis
advisors, Dr. Sonya S. Lee and Dr. Lon Kurashige. Dr. Lee was my first professor at USC and
intimidated me in the best way possible, as I regard her highly as a brilliant thinker and art
historian. She encouraged me to ponder deeply, ask more questions, and helped me refine my
arguments in this thesis. She is flawlessly organized, incredibly giving to her students, and
unknowingly challenged me to grow deeper within myself – I thank her from my heart. Dr.
Kurashige spoke as a guest speaker in my first year graduate seminar, and I knew I wanted to
learn from him. He introduced me to the right texts to further develop my ideas and helped me
reconsider my thesis from different perspectives. I thank him for his supportive direction and
kind mentorship. The strengths in this thesis are all due to my committee’s thoughtful counsel,
but its weaknesses are entirely my own.

My sincere gratitude goes to Dr. Kendall H. Brown and Kuniko Brown, who graciously invited
me to their home to discuss and sketch the outline of my paper. This thesis truly would not exist
or be close to what it has evolved into without Dr. Brown’s cheerful enthusiasm and infectious
passion for Japanese gardens. My appreciation extends to: Alice Doo, Sharon Kim, Christine
Spier, Sue Denness and Dr. Elliott Kai-Kee of the J. Paul Getty Museum and the Getty Research
Institute; Alexis Curry of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art Library and Special
51

Collections; John Stucky of the C. Laan Chun Library at the Asian Art Museum in San
Francisco; Madeleine Hasbrouck and Aubrey Perkins of Christie's Los Angeles; and Constance
Sheares, Former Curator of Art at the National Museum of Singapore, for all their care and
support.

Thank you to the department faculty and staff at the USC East Asian Studies Center, especially
Dr. Brett Sheehan, Grace Ryu, Alex Wroblewski and Lola Shehu for taking a chance on me. To
my fellow cohorts, Megan Ong and Gesshin Claire Greenwood, for their loyal friendship - I
await the impactful contributions they will make in the world! Working full-time while
completing my M.A. program would not have been possible without the unwavering support of
my team at the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California including my managers,
Shohreh Zareh, whose girl-power strength inspired me daily to continue my education, and
Kieran Callanan, who has cheered on all my career endeavors; and to the USC Asian Pacific
Alumni Association and Pokshil Choy Family for their generous support of my studies.

To all my friends, especially those who have been my life lines the past two years: Jennifer and
Samuel Nalbandian, Angela Park, Seong Ah Cho, Sharon Im, Emily and Clement Tsay, Nicholas
Nguyen, Glory Song, Yue Xue, Patrick Rios, Christine and Brian Park, Jessica Kang, Michelle
Seo, Kim Ishikawa, Daphne Hazlehurst, Marian Tran, Janie Yoo and Steve Lee, and David Shen.
They all have been, and are my joys and saviors.

To my family, especially my aunts, Mai Park and Sonya Lee; my sisters and brother, Jenni Lee,
Sandy Welsh, and Mike Welsh, for illuminating life with endless laughter and sharing the same
yearning to see the world; my father Lawrence Lee and my mother Laura Lee, the purest form of
love I know, for teaching me the importance of studying and understanding humanity (they were
the last critical readers of this manuscript); and finally my grandparents, Lee Soon Dal, Lee Ran
Sun, Kim Hyung Yup, and Kim Chun Geun – heroes who remind me to live bravely and softly
with grit and purpose.

I often believed that the life of a student researcher is one that is isolating and lonely. However,
reflecting upon the words I poured onto these pages, I realize the journey has been anything but.

DL
Leimert Park, Los Angeles, CA
112

June 2018

112
While immersed in this research project, I discovered that my home, a Spanish-influenced fourplex unit, was designed by
developer-builders Elwain Steinkamp and William T. Richardson in 1933. I hope to begin a project writing and illustrating (with
paintings), an architectural and cultural history of residence homes in Leimert Park.
52

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Abstract (if available)

Abstract At the turn of the twentieth century, Boston was intimately involved in America's foundational understanding of Japanese art and culture through key figures like E.S. Morse and Okakura Kazuko. Morse produced one of the most influential written texts on Japanese architecture, Japanese Homes and Their Surroundings (1885), while Okakura, the first curator of Japanese art at the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, prepared the American stage for Japan’s arrival through his books, Ideals of the East with Special Reference to the Arts of Japan (1904) and The Book of Tea (1906). These written works spurred curiosity for Japanese aesthetics and critically meditated on the position of Asian art within the sphere of world art. Consequently, this trend led to the development of private Japanese art collections by collectors like Isabella Stewart Gardner and John D. Rockefeller, as well as paved the path for major public institutions to curate and display collections of 'Oriental' art such as the renowned collection of Japanese art at the Museum of Fine Arts Boston. Such literature, collectors and collections became synonymous with Japanism and the history of Asian art in America. ❧ While extensive scholarship has been written on the popularity of Japanism in Boston and other major American cities such as Chicago and New York City, little has been written on its impacts and legacy in Los Angeles. Many scholars fail to specify that ‘Japanism in American culture' as we understand it, is more so connected to 'East Coast American' culture than it is to 'West Coast American' culture. From this lens, this thesis explores this distinction through the Yamashiro (1914), a Japanese-style home residence of Adolph and Eugene Bernheimer built in Hollywood, California. The home serves as a case study to examine the intersections of architecture and cultural identity and the formations of memory contained in space (private and public). The Yamashiro has long stood outside the conventional views of Japanese (and broadly Asian) art and architecture, therefore this study approaches the Yamashiro as a ‘living museum’ representative of a nostalgic era of a unique Hollywood Japanism in Los Angeles. It considers the deeper implications of preserving the home space as a form of memorialization and reexamines the space as an extension of the Oriental Pavilions at the World’s Fairs. This thesis ultimately explores how the Yamashiro constructed certain public perceptions and ideas of Japan and Asia-at-large through the architectural portrayals of Japan in Los Angeles.

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Creator Lee, Dianne E. (author)

Core Title Yamashiro, imagined home and the aesthetics of Hollywood Japanism: memory contained in architectural space

School College of Letters, Arts and Sciences

Degree Master of Arts

Degree Program East Asian Area Studies

Publication Date 08/14/2018

Defense Date 08/15/2018

Publisher University of Southern California (original), University of Southern California. Libraries (digital)

Tag 1920s Hollywood,1920s Los Angeles,Adolph Bernheimer,American Japanism,Asian art collections,California architecture,cultural identity,Eugene Bernheimer,exoticism,heritage home preservation,Hollywood,Hollywood art,home museums,Japan in Los Angeles,Japanese aesthetics,Japanese architecture,Japanese art,Japonisme,Los Angeles architecture,memory,museums,nostalgia,OAI-PMH Harvest,Orientalism,private art collections,Southern California Arts and Crafts Movement,Yamashiro

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Language English

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Advisor Mizuta Lippit, Miya Elise (committee chair), Kurashige, Lon (committee member), Lee, Sonya S. (committee member)

Creator Email dianne.e.lee@gmail.com,diannele@usc.edu

Permanent Link (DOI) https://doi.org/10.25549/usctheses-c89-66304

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Access Conditions The author retains rights to his/her dissertation, thesis or other graduate work according to U.S. copyright law. Electronic access is being provided by the USC Libraries in agreement with the a...

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