The Garden Welcomes Everyone

On Friday, June 21, the entire CRJS team was blessed with the opportunity to have a personal tour of Kubota Garden, guided by docent Dr. Jason M. Wirth. Dr. Wirth is professor of philosophy at Seattle University and works and teaches in the areas of Continental Philosophy, Buddhist Philosophy, Aesthetics, and Environmental Philosophy. He is Chair of the Philosophy Department as well as Chair of the Interreligious Dialogue Initiative, which is housed in Seattle University’s Institute for Catholic Thought and Culture. 

Following this unique and remarkable garden tour experience, Jason agreed to an interview so we could learn more about him and his deep knowledge of the Garden. We are honored he shared his story with us so we could share it with our community. 

How did you become a Buddhist priest and what do you enjoy most? 

I was ordained a Soto Zen priest in Japan in 2010. This was the culmination of a long and sustained philosophical and spiritual evolution. I was raised Catholic and educated by the Jesuits, and the seeds of my ordination are in my Jesuit education. I note that since Vatican II, there have been several Jesuits who have become Zen masters. Although these paths are not the same, I think they touch upon each other on a deep and foundational level. In contemplative Catholic mysticism, for example, one finds resonances with the fruits of intensive Zen practice. 

Given that Zen has some cultural idioms and practices that reflect its Japanese home, it is not entirely clear what it means to be a Zen priest in this new soil. It takes time for the Zen seed to mature and grow in a healthy manner. For this reason, I am grateful that my training was in part in Japan and in all parts with Japanese teachers.  

As it has always done, Zen will eventually emerge in a cultural form that suits its new home. But this takes time, and it is a mistake to quickly assimilate and Americanize Zen practice before one can appreciate the ways in which it pushes against our culture and challenges it to be more awake and generous and attentive.

This is what I love: building deep spiritual community in a manner that speaks to the needs and opportunities of our time. 

I also appreciate that Zen has profound ecological implications. Its experience of interdependence is critical if we are going to rethink our relationship to each other and to the sustaining conditions that make us all possible. 

Tell us about being a philosophy teacher and the Chair of Interreligious Dialogue at SU. 

I have taught philosophy for three decades, and this has been my life's vocation. It was during this time that I also began my intensive Zen practice. I think we neglect the spiritual side of our lives at great peril. Our ethical and social challenges in this time of the Anthropocene ask more of us than we think we are capable. Our spiritual traditions unleash otherwise repressed sources of compassion, generosity, and the persistence to engage in what Thomas Berry called the Great Work. 

My friend, the late Peter Ely, SJ, was the original chair of the Interreligious Dialogue Initiative at Seattle University. I was moved by the generosity and openness with which he engaged in genuine dialogue in community with different spiritual practices, no matter how remote they seemed in comparison with his own Jesuit formation. Toward the end of his life, he asked me, as a Soto Zen priest, albeit one with a foot deep in the Jesuit world, to become the new chair.  

I was deeply moved and take this as a profound spiritual responsibility. I was entrusted with something the outcome of which I sense will be decisive for how we respond to the challenges and opportunities ahead. 

How does Jesuit education align with your work as a Buddhist priest? 

Both are engaged in the Great Work of our time. It is a great honor and responsibility to share such work with them. 

What would Fujitarō Kubota and St. Ignatius have in common? 

This is a deep question that would reward many hours of conversation and mutual exploration. As a down payment on such a conversation, I turn to Ignatius’s formative experience on the Cardoner River in Catalonia. His spiritual exercises and contemplative introspection flowered into a kind of metanoēsis (like Saul on the way to Damascus).

It was not simply that he came to see new things but rather that he came to see in a new way. Kubota Garden also helps us see the world in a new way.

When Ignatius saw God in all things, Kubota saw the spirit (kami) in all things. The Garden is its own form of spiritual exercise, one dedicated to clarifying the mind and opening the heart. 

How did you get involved with Kubota Garden? 

I was first introduced to the remarkable work of Fujitarō Kubota when I joined the philosophy department at Seattle University in 2005. Kubota was the landscape architect for the campus in the years after the Second World War. In 2006, I had the opportunity to purchase a modest ‘fixer-upper’ a block from Kubota Garden. I could not believe my good fortune. 

As a Zen priest, and as a lover of Japanese artistic culture, I volunteered to help in whatever ways that might benefit the Garden. My work came to include three deep dives that helped me understand the legacy, spiritual potency, and aesthetic power of the Garden: I worked on the documentary about the life of its founder, Fujitarō Kubota; I was an editor of and contributor to the award-winning book on the Garden (Spirited Stone, published by Chin Music Press); and I was trained as a docent, learning from other remarkable docents (like Ellen Phillips-Angeles).  

I have also learned much from my friend, Linda Kubota Byrd (Fujitarō’s granddaughter), as well as Kubota Garden Foundation’s incredible president, Joy Okazaki. The gardeners have also taught me much. 

Can you share a brief history of Kubota Garden? 

Fujitarō Kubota was an issei, that is, a first generation Japanese and economic refugee who came to this country to work hard. He never had much money, but he was a visionary who gave his work all that he had. When in 1927 he identified the land that would eventually become his great Garden, he loved that it was a riparian zone, with Mapes Creek running across the land. In the world of real estate, the Creek was a liability, but in the eyes of Kubota, it was a treasure: he saw gold where others saw rubble.  

Not only did the Creek make the land more affordable, but it could also become the architectural backbone of the Garden. But this was always Kubota's genius. He could see treasure where others saw liabilities, problems, and hindrances. 

What is your favorite Kubota Garden story? 

There are so many wonderful stories. I am most moved by the story of what he did in the short amount of time that he had to pack a few things before he and his family were incarcerated during World War II in Minidoka. He immediately gathered seeds, knowing that a garden would help the Japanese survive life in a concentration camp. 

Tell about your experience in the Rainier Beach/South Seattle neighborhood that we are all now part of? 

Cristo Rey had the good fortune and insight to come to Upper Rainier Beach in one of the most diverse zip codes in the whole country. I take great solace in this neighborhood. Not only is its diversity an asset and a blessing, but it is the kindest and most neighborly place that I have ever lived. Kubota Garden itself radiates spiritual force, inviting us all to become better people. 

It is my hope that just as Kubota's life and work connected Seattle University with this neighborhood, Seattle University and Cristo Rey will enjoy a deep connection, one in which we help each other as part of the Great Work that confronts us all. 

How do you incorporate the practices of Fujitarō Kubota in your own gardening? 

My gardening aesthetic is shaped by my proximity to Kubota Garden. For a few hours every May and September, Kubota Garden has an incredible garden sale, where I have purchased many of my most prized plants and trees. 

You mentioned the Garden went through a transition during the Covid years. What major changes did you notice, and what are some of the positive changes that have occurred? 

The Kubota Garden Foundation tirelessly advocates for the Garden, and all its major changes come through their watchful eyes and hard work. During the COVID period, the Garden became a refuge for people. I think for some it became even clearer how precious this Garden is and how fortunate we are to have an opportunity to keep the gift alive for future generations. 

What do you love most about Kubota Garden? 

Although a casual visitor might simply be entranced by the Garden’s undeniable beauty, I most love its underlying spiritual potency and invitation to become aware of our lives and our world with more generosity and appreciation. The Garden welcomes everyone and in so doing takes us to a place that settles our mind and makes it more aware of the great gifts of the earth and of our responsibility to take care of them and enhance them. 

Learn more about the Kubota Garden here.