Kubota Gardens sits on 20+ acres of Seattle City Park space in South Seattle, and has a range of walking, light hiking trails, including Japanese gardens landscape designed by Tom Kubota and family. (See Kubota Gardens history.)
Of the dozens of Japanese gardens all over the Asia Pacific and the U.S. that I’ve seen, Kubota Gardens is among the most nicely diverse Japanese gardens in the world, featuring traditional tea garden designs, bonsai pine pavilion, and even a Zen garden. While it’s intended to support a large volume of visitors it distinctly features both natural water springs and gorgeous waterfalls cascading into numerous ponds and inlets.
Though written just a week ago, my Kubota Water Dance tunes (to be recorded shortly) was inspired in this special space during the early spring season of 2014 underneath a lace Japanese maple with exposed leaf-free, winding, twisting green moss- clothed branches. Chickadees were frivolously doing a water dance — chirping and dancing under the maple tree on a drizzly cool day, and occasionally stopping for a droplet on the green moss or branches.
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