Ojai, city, Ventura county, southern California, U.S. Situated 12 miles (19 km) north of Ventura and about 85 miles (135 km) northwest of Los Angeles, it lies in the Ojai Valley flanked by mountains.
Originally inhabited by Chumash Indians, the site under Spanish rule was an outpost ranchería of the San Buenaventura Mission (now in Ventura). When the settlement was first laid out in 1874, it was named Nordhoff for Charles Nordhoff, a California booster and author of California for Health, Pleasure and Residence (1872). In 1917 the community was renamed Ojai, derived from the Chumash word a’hwai (“moon”), and homeowners were encouraged to remodel or maintain their structures in the Spanish Mission style. Ojai later attracted artists and crafts people as residents, as well as various spiritualists and religionists advocating meditation, yoga, theosophy, naturalism, astrology, and holism. Tourists are attracted not only by the scenic valley—where many of the scenes of Shangri-La in the classic film Lost Horizon (1937) were shot—but also by an abundance of pottery studios, antique stores, galleries, shops, and boutiques. The Ojai Valley Tennis Tournament, established in 1895, is held annually in April; the Ojai Festival, featuring music and dramatic readings, occurs in May and June. Thomas Aquinas College (1971), which uses no textbooks in its curriculum, is located in nearby Santa Paula. The southernmost boundary of Los Padres National Forest is also nearby. Inc. 1921. Pop. (2000) 7,862; (2010) 7,461.