Kubota Garden Foundation

Mission

Kubota Garden Foundation supports, enhances and preserves Kubota Garden in the spirit and vision of Fujitaro Kubota.

Description

The Kubota Garden Foundation raises funds, organizes volunteers, sponsors programs and projects at the Kubota Garden in partnership with Seattle Parks, who owns and maintains the garden.

Kubota Garden is a unique urban refuge created through the vision, effort and commitment by the Kubota family. The garden started in 1927 when Fujitaro Kubota bought five acres of logged-off swampland in the Rainier Beach neighborhood of Seattle and began his garden. A 1907 emigrant from the Japanese Island of Shikoku, he established the Kubota Gardening Company in 1923. Entirely self-taught as a gardener, he wanted to display the beauty of the Northwest in a Japanese manner and was soon designing and installing gardens throughout the Seattle area. In addition to Kubota Garden, the gardens on the Seattle University campus and the Japanese Garden at the Bloedel Reserve on Bainbridge Island are public examples of his work.

During the Second World War, the garden was abandoned for four years while the Kubota family suffered internment at Camp Minidoka in Idaho. Fujitaro and his sons, Tak and Tom, rebuilt the landscape business after the war and began extensive plantings of nursery stock. Many of these nursery areas are still present today. In the sixties, Fujitaro placed over 400 tons of stone to create the Mountainside with featured waterfalls, reflection pools, carved stones and the plants that he had worked with throughout this life.

The 4.5-acre core area of the garden is a designated Historical Landmark and in 1987, thanks to the efforts of many dedicated individuals, the City of Seattle acquired the 20-acre garden from the Kubota family. In 2024, Kubota Garden saw more than 150,000 visitors and offered guided tours and events to the public for free with the help of dedicated volunteers and generous donors.

Recognition

4Culture

King County Waterworks

State of WA Recreation & Conservation Office

Robert & Allison Grayson

Jean G Hobart

Jesslyn Howgate

Gordon and Mary Ellen Mulder

Susan L Tusa

TMS