Her Japanese father, Shoji Osato (1885-1955), and her Irish-French Canadian mother, Frances Fitzpatrick (1897-1954), were the caretakers of the Phoenix Pavilion and its Japanese garden, both of which had been built for World's Columbian Exposition in 1893, from 1935 to 1941.
Sono Osato was the oldest of three siblings; her given name is Japanese for "garden" [REF].