Japanese Tea Garden and the contested origin of the fortune cookie

Makoto Hagiwara, who cared for the Japanese Tea Garden in Golden Gate Park in the early 20th century, is credited by some historians with introducing a precursory folded cookie bearing messages at the garden. The claim that the garden popularized or originated the modern fortune cookie is part of a broader, historically debated origin story that includes competing claims from Southern California. The Japanese Tea Garden remains a site tied to those historical accounts and to early Japanese-American food culture in San Francisco.