Felix Tikotin, an architect by profession, was an internationally renowned collector and dealer in Japanese works of art. For more than forty years he amassed his valuable and rare collection and organized exhibitions of Japanese art in many museums. During the Second World War, because he was Jewish, Felix Tikotin fled from the Nazis. He hid his collection in Holland to prevent it from falling into their hands. After the war, Tikotin decided that his unique collection should be taken to Israel, and came here in 1956 in order to donate it to one of Israel's museums. During a visit to Haifa he met Mayor Abba Khoushy, and decided that the collection should remain in Haifa, and that he would build a pavilion specifically for exhibiting it here.