Kubota Gardens (1921-1993)
Kubota Garden is a 20-acre Japanese garden adjacent to Indigenous Creatives Collective’s land. It was started in 1927 by Fujitaro Kubota, a Japanese emigrant. In 1987 it became a public park stewarded by the Seattle Parks and Recreation and the Kubota Garden Foundation.
This section outlines the history of Kubota Garden broadly, which would have taken place right next door to yəhaw̓’s land.
(Notes about historical aspects are listed in bold and italics.)
(Environmental impacts due to manmade creations will be bolded and underlined.)
Kubota Gardens in Seattle, Washington. Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license. Attribution: Joe Mabel
Sign for Kubota Gardens in Seattle, Washington. Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license. Attribution: Joe Mabel
1923: Kubota Gardening Company was founded by Fujitaro Kubota (1879-1973).
1927: Fujitaro Kubota – the founder of Kubota Landscaping Company and Kubota Gardens – purchased the five acres of land adjacent to yəhaw̓, which at the time was described as “logged-off swampland.” He began turning the land into a nursery on behalf of a “white friend,” due to the fact that Washington’s 1889 Constitution had banned the sale of land to "aliens ineligible in citizenship.” Specifically, Asians were not allowed to rent, lease, or buy land as a result of the Alien Land Law of 1921, but “Japanese entrepreneurs got around the law by making arrangements with supportive Caucasians, who obtained land for them and technically employed the Japanese as ‘managers.’”[1]
Kubota was said to have been inspired by the land’s “changes of elevation, several springs, and a perennial creek,” and tapped into all of his family savings in order to make a down payment.[2]
Under Kubota’s direction, a caretaker moved onto the property and drained the swamp, as well as placed a rockery along Renton Ave. They cut trails and dug ponds.[2]
In the 1930s, Japanese Americans moved out of the International District and towards the Rainier Valley and Beacon Hill.[3]
October 15, 1930: Kubota Gardens expands their property through the purchase of three parcels [4].
1931: The Great Depression hit and Kubota Gardening Company “ceased to prosper” until business picked up again in 1936. It lasted until 1942, when the Kubota family was sent to internment camps.[2]
The family, however, continued to work on the garden. “An existing spring-fed pond was dredged and expanded,”[4] and using a horse-drawn Fresno Scraper, the spoils from dredging the pond were used to build a hillside.[2]
1936-1974: Aerial photographs of Kubota Gardens show an orchard to the west and beyond 51st Ave. S of the site, near where yəhaw̓ is now.
In 1937, the previously-built interurban went out of business. Rainier Valley is already developed by this time, automobiles, buses, and trolleys replace it as primary modes of transportation.[2]
Old greenhouse, taken during group cleanup of the yəhaw̓ site during Summer 2023. (Image courtesy of yəhaw̓)
World War II affected the population of the area. Seattle’s largest non-white group and the second largest community on the West Coast, consisting of Japanese Americans, were sent to interment camps. Their population fell throughout the city from 7,000 in 1940 to 5,800 in 1950.[1]
Furthermore, Black Americans began to move into the area for defense jobs at the Boeing Company, or at the shipyards and port of embarkation. Redlining confined them to the Central Area – or the only other neighborhoods they were allowed, which was Rainier Valley and Beacon Hill. Because housing was critically short, the U.S. government also “constructed thousands of low-cost temporary units at Rainier Vista and Stadium Homes and Holly Park.”[2] Jewish families also began to move from the Central Area to Seward Park.
1942: Kubota family was incarcerated at the Minidoka Internment Camp in Idaho sometime between May 8, 1942, when it opened, and November 28, 1945, when it closed. They continued to pursue gardening and farming at the time.
1942-1945: Kubota properties were rented out, but the gardens remained untouched. They owed back taxes and assessments on the property to the city and county.
1945: Kubota family returned to their property in 1945.[6][7]
“The roads were overgrown with weeds and the ponds had silted up and collected debris.”[2] Takeshi Kubota sickled the weeds in the roadways and managed the gardens section-by-section to return them to previous glory.[4]
The work of Kubota Gardening Company resumed. The property was used to grow plants such as pine, arborvitae, yew, box, birch, cypress, spruce, and old, with "trained pines" becoming the company's signature plant.
In the 1950s and 1960s, Chinese and Filipino immigrants continued to move out of the International District and to the Beacon Hill or Rainier Valley area.[3]
Fifth and Wall, Seattle, 1962, with World's Fair signage. Item 71944, Engineering Department Photographic Negatives (Record Series 2613-07). Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license. Attribution: Seattle Municipal Archives
1961: Possibly in preparation for the upcoming Century 21 World’s Fair the next year, Takeshi Fujitaro directed his son and their landscape crew to revise Kubota Gardens’ existing “Necklace of Ponds” and built “Mountainside,” a structure which “rises 65 feet with ponds and waterfalls,” including a moon-viewing platform and moon bridge.
“Archival images from before, during, and after installation show that the hillside had been used for nursery stock, but was otherwise an unremarkable slope. The addition of over 400 tons of rock and the installation of a water- recirculation pump created a series of cliffs and waterfalls within a large, dynamic vista. Photographs from this period show the open vistas and an expansive scene framed by tall Douglas fir trees, with a viewing ‘platform’ situated at the lowest of the ponds along Mapes Creek.” Mapes Creek connects with the current yəhaw̓ site.[4]
1962: The Century 21 World’s Fair took place in Seattle.
1969: Kubota Gardens purchases two additional parcels of land to grow their site to its current 20-acre expanse.[4]
1972: Kubota Gardens builds “Moon Bridge” and “concrete Lily Pads.”[4]
February 6, 1973: Fujitaro Kubota passes away.
In 1975, the end of the Vietnam War marked a period where refugees from Southeast Asia settled in the area.
Many African Americans also continued to move to the area throughout the late 1960s and 1970s. The Hispanic population also increased in the area during this time – possibly due to the presence of El Centro de la Raza in Beacon Hill. The area became extremely diverse,[3] enjoying Italian businesses such as Oberto Meats and Borrachini's Bakery, as well as Mexican bodegas, Vietnamese restaurants offering phò, and Mutual Fish, opened by Japanese American Richard Yoshimura.”[2]
Another organization of note, SouthEast Effective Development (SEED) helped develop the Rainier Valley neighborhood and its commercial districts, including the creation of the current-day Rainier Valley Cultural Center.
1975: Sewer issues pose a significant financial challenge to Kubota Gardens. The Seattle Times reported that the initial conversations of selling the property to Seattle Parks began in 1973. The Kubota family approached the City of Seattle to ask them to purchase the garden and turn it into a park or public space, but the City of Seattle declined.
1980 onwards: Aerial photographs of the site show that properties around Kubota Gardens are occupied by angle-family residencies. The orchards which were previously present seem less visible.
1980s: Developers won a bid to potentially turn the site into a 268-unit housing development to build condominiums. In response, community members advocated for the City of Seattle to purchase the garden – a project which was in large part spearheaded by former Councilwoman Jeanette Williams.
1981: Kubota Gardens is declared a national landmark.
1987: Councilwoman Jeanette Williams found the necessary funds to make the purchase. The then-mayor Charles Royer supposedly hesitated about the $1 million acquisition but eventually located the funds. The Kubota Gardening Company moved off the property when the City of Seattle finalized the purchase.[9]
1989: Community members formed the Kubota Garden Foundation to continue a partnership with the City and assure the preservation of the entire garden as envisioned by the Kubota family.
Tate, C. (2012, August 12). Southeast Seattle ZIP code 98118: Neighborhood of nations. Southeast Seattle ZIP Code 98118: Neighborhood of Nations. https://www.historylink.org/File/10164
Wilma, D. (2001, March 8). Kubota Garden (Seattle). https://www.historylink.org/File/3077
Tobin, C. (2004, May). North Rainier Valley Historic Context Statement. https://www.seattle.gov/Documents/Departments/Neighborhoods/HistoricPreservation/HistoricResourcesSurvey/context-north-rainier.pdf
Kubota Gardens. (2019). Kubota Garden Foundation - Home. 2019 Kubota Gardens Master Plan Update. https://kubotagarden.org/uploads/1/3/3/4/133498984/kg_master_plan_update_200121_final_small.pdf
From Yesler to Wedgwood. Wedgwood in Seattle History. (2022, September 2). https://wedgwoodinseattlehistory.com/2013/01/13/from-yesler-to-wedgwood/
Hampton, E. L. (1902). Seattle Mail and Herald, v. 5, no. 34, Jul. 5, 1902. photograph, Seattle. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Seattle_Mail_and_Herald,_v._5,_no._34,_Jul._5,_1902_-_DPLA_-_594b31ccc899f2a73d4071ce7729e884_(page_1).jpg
Minidoka Internment - NPS history. (n.d.-a). http://www.npshistory.com/brochures/miin/camps-2004.pdf
Pacific Coast Architecture Database . (n.d.). Takeshi Kubota. PCAD. https://pcad.lib.washington.edu/person/6907/
Godden, J. (2009, July 20). Williams, Jeanette (1914-2008). https://www.historylink.org/File/9087