From literary nest to spiritually blessed
Hollywood writing royalty Joan Didion and husband Gregory Dunne lived in a big quasi-Georgian home with a Spanish-style twist on Franklin Avenue from 1967 to 1971. In Didion’s book The White Album, she reminisces about those freewheeling, anti-anxiety-pill-popping days, with many houseguests, open doors, and daughter Quintana Roo playing tennis on the court in the backyard. They hosted parties attended by Hollywood luminaries, among them Janis Joplin, who would later die of an overdose in a hotel room down the street, in 1970. The house belonged Dunne’s uncle. There, Didion wrote Play It as It Lays and her seminal essay collection Slouching Towards Bethlehem.
In 1979, Shumei bought the building, opening its first western outpost. Shumei is influenced by the ancient religions of Shinto, Buddhism, Christianity, as well as Western philosophy. It is based on a spiritual practice of chanting, Natural agriculture, celebrating art and beauty in everyday life, and sharing jyorei, a healing art that promotes health, happiness, and well-being. The public is welcome to join daily morning and evening chanting, called sampai.
Info
Address 7406 Franklin Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90046, +1 213.876.5528, www.shumei.us/hollywood, hollywood@shumei.us | Public Transport Red Line to Hollywood and Highland Station, then a .9-mile walk | Getting there Small on-site lot and unmetered street parking | Hours Daily chanting: 9am & 7pm, by reservation only. Demonstration garden: open during daylight hours. | Tip Meltdown Comics (7522 Sunset Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90046), just over a half mile away, has a fantastic selection of independent comics and superhero staples with rotating art exhibits.
The Shumei Retreat House also maintains a demonstration garden in its backyard, full of completely chemical- and pesticide-free fruits and vegetables. Open during daylight hours, it is an integral part of its commitment to Natural agriculture, a method that embraces harmony between nature and humanity. Fava beans and black soybeans grow in neat rows on the site of the former tennis court, which took master gardener Junzo Uyeno four years to excavate. A rototiller couldn’t break the compacted earth; so, he patiently dug three feet into the ground, working with the soil to transform it into the fertile and prolific garden it is today. The retreat house offers gardening workshops and work-exchange programs for food cultivated in the garden.
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