Drawing, “Heart Bridge,” Kubota Garden. 2020.
I first visited Kubota Gardens on an elementary school field trip in the early 1970s when I was in third or fourth grade. I have vague memories of my first trip to the garden, only blocks away from my school. All I can recall was that it was a classic grey, wet day in Seattle. The ground was wet and brown. But the garden was a lush green.
Now, on my second visit over 40 years later, I returned to the garden. First in 2018 to make paintings that I share in this post. Since 2018, I have returned several times to Kubota Garden to experience the serenity in my city. Most recently the past weekend. I specifically returned to sketch Heart Bridge.
Funny how life sometimes gets filled up with so many other things. How is it that gems in one's own backyard are temporarily forgotten about or overlooked? That said, I have been long been looking forward to returning to this magical setting, with the intention of rediscovering the garden through art.
Upon my return to Kubota Garden for the first time in four decades, my eyes were opened with those of the child of my youth. I entered this magical environment, experiencing its wonderment as I did all those years ago. And everything is green! The floral landscape is in its budding stages of full color.
Fujitaro Kubota was an entirely self-taught gardener. Kubota purchased five acres of logged-off swampland in a southeast Seattle neighborhood in 1927 and began work on transforming this land into a vision of his homeland. His goal was to display the beauty of the Northwest in a Japanese manner. Traditional Japanese gardens include the following elements: water, stone, bridge, lantern, colored carp.
“Interior,” Kubota Garden. Oil on Canvas, 4x4.” 2018.
”Fujitaro Kubota was born in 1879, in Kochi Prefecture on the island of Shikoku, Japan. He immigrated to America in 1907 and established his home. In 1927 he acquired this land in order to make a large garden. With his own hands he cleared the land, dug several ponds and cut the trees to build the garden. Mr. Kubota studied landscaping, suffered hard work and put great effort into this project. The garden was finally completed in 1962 and in that year this memorial stone was erected. It was the eighty-third year of Fujitaro Kubota”. Kubota Garden Memorial Stone Inscription.
“Silent,” Mapes Creek, Kubota Garden. Oil on Canvas, 4x4.” 2018.
In this image, Mapes Creek flows through the setting. Mapes Creek was restored in 2014 to provide a "re-created" stream for Chinook salmon who are migrating from the Cedar River to Puget Sound along the lakeshore of Lake Washington. The young salmon use the creek to feed and rest on their long journey to the salt water of Puget Sound.
“Moon Bridge,” Kubota Garden. Oil on Canvas, 2018.
According to Fujitaro Kubota, Moon Bridge symbolizes the difficulty of living a good life: “Hard to walk up, hard to walk down.”
One of the tenets of traditional Japanese garden design, bridges "are privileged sites in a Japanese garden, where one will linger and take in the beauty of the landscape, watch the carps swimming in their watery elements, and enjoy the softness of the breeze. Bridges may be built of wood, bamboo, earth or stone. Whether they are rounded, arc-shaped or in zigzags, they always remain in harmony with the surrounding nature."
This bridge of stone traverses one of the original sections of the garden called "Japanese Garden" that Kubota developed.
“Mountainside,” Kubota Garden. Oil on Canvas, 4x4.” 2018.
The waterfall is part of the "Mountainside" section of the park. It was built by the Kubota family to celebrate the 1962 World's Fair in Seattle, and offers the visitor a miniature walk into the mountains. The waterfalls are formed by stone from North Bend and fed by water pumped up from the lowest part of the garden.
A traditional Japanese haiku is a three-line poem with seventeen syllables, written in a 5/7/5 syllable count. Often focusing on images from nature, haiku emphasizes simplicity, intensity, and directness of expression.
Here is my haiku, inspired by the mountainside waterfall of Kubota Garden:
Borrowed scenery
Mountainside carries water
I hear birds singing
Mr. Kubota died in 1973 at the age of 93. "He had always hoped that the garden would one day be available to the public, both to enhance the quality of life in Seattle and to increase American understanding and appreciation of Japanese culture." Kubota Garden Foundation.
I am so glad I could visit the garden as a child while Fujitaro Kubota was still alive. I am grateful his legacy lives on through this beautiful and serene garden.
Mary Lamery. Self Portrait. Drawing. 2018.
Mary Lamery is a lifelong resident of Seattle, Washington, USA and native of the Pacific Northwest.
Lamery paints regional landscape in a manner that leans towards 19th century French Impressionism. Her landscapes invite the viewer to add to the backstory of the composition through personal identification with the paintings and story telling of the experience.
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