Fall Maple Wardrobe
by Ken Stanback
Title
Fall Maple Wardrobe
Artist
Ken Stanback
Medium
Photograph - Photography
Description
Japanese Maple in full bloom at Kubota Japanese Gardens in south Seattle. Few would pick the far reaches of Rainier Valley in southeast Seattle as a likely location for what may be Seattle’s loveliest park. Few would imagine this diverse, hardly upscale area is home to a park of unusual beauty and spiritual power. But there it is, a hidden treasure, with nearby noisy highways, busy freeways, buzzing power lines and the main flight path into Sea-Tac.
It is Kubota Garden, a few blocks from the gritty urban scene of Rainier Avenue and amid the low prestige environs of south Seattle.
At anytime of the year the Kubota gardens are lovely, but especially now, in the autumn season. The graveled pathways are dusted with red and gold maple leaves. The robins, finches, and pine siskins compete for the dark purple berries on the laurel. As you cross the moon bridge or stand near the mountainside waterfall, the water reflects the brilliant shades of autumn leaves and sky.
Kubota Garden is now a Seattle Parks and Recreation Park, but it didn’t start out that way. It was unlikely from the beginning.
In 1927 an immigrant from Japan’s Shikoku Island, Fujitaro Kubota, bought five acres of recently logged swampland. Even then, however, Kubota was not the official owner. He couldn’t be —it was against state law for immigrants from Japan to own or lease property. It was not until 1966 that state law was changed and Kubota became the legal owner.
Uploaded
December 31st, 2012
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