Spirits in the Stone

St. Ignatius, founder of the Jesuits, would have loved Kubota Garden. 

This hidden gem in south Seattle is a gorgeous 38-acre Japanese garden just to the west of Cristo Rey Jesuit Seattle, 100 yards from where I sit writing this blog. 

What St. Ignatius would have appreciated most is the manifest spirit of God that permeates Kubota Garden. While Ignatius was not a practitioner of Shintoism, he likely would have appreciated Shintoism’s core belief regarding kami—the spirits that inhabit the natural wonders of Kubota Garden, from the magnificent trees to the elegant bridges over ponds to the spirits in the stones themselves. Ignatius taught us to see “God in all things.” As you enter Fujitaro Kubota’s sacred space, you are invited to knock your knuckles on a bonsho, a bronze bell whose ringing informs the spirits of the Garden that you are present. 

Gazing upon the multi-layered landscape, lovingly curated decades ago by Mr. Kubota, you will be stunned by the variform colors and textures of the trees, water, bridges, stones, and hills. 

What you will not see is the rich and conflicted story of the Kubota family, whose artistry colors landscapes from Issaquah to Bainbridge Island to Seattle University. Simply because they were Japanese-Americans on the west coast, the Kubota family was interned at a prison farm in Idaho during World War II, a cruel reward for citizens who had seeded so much beauty in our region. 

Even during that trying period, Mr. Kubota did what he could do to bring harmony to a bitter landscape, filling empty patches of ground with elegant natural creations. His story, and that of his Seattle friends who kept his garden thriving while he was “away,” reflect the best of humanity, even as the Kubotas suffered the worst of human xenophobia. 

As a Jesuit school, we are called to intercultural and interreligious dialogue.

In that spirit, we are grateful to be developing a relationship with our neighbors. During our Montserrat Summer Bridge program, students will visit Kubota Garden to learn the cultural, natural, and religious lessons that this sacred space holds. We hope to have the opportunity to spend time doing service in the garden, cleaning and pruning, and generally lending our hands. 

St. Ignatius experienced a number of life-changing mystical moments while contemplating the natural world, none more significant than his epiphany at the River Cardoner in northern Spain. There, he reported, God’s love became manifest in a manner majestic and ineffable, which transformed him completely. Without that profound experience of nature, our school and all other Jesuit works would not exist. God moves in mysterious ways indeed. 

We can’t wait to introduce our students to the Kubota Garden, where they will intuit what it means to experience God in all things, including trees, running brooks, still ponds, and the very stones themselves. 

Paul Hogan
President