The Spring District Mural – Mari Shibuya

This mural at the Spring District honors the memory and living legacy of the land, with particular attention to the Japanese American farmers who once grew strawberries here. Their story is one thread in the larger story of the land here—Coast Salish land stewarded by The Duwamish, Suquamish, Muckleshoot and Snoqualmie people since time immemorial. Through these three panels, my intention is honor the spirits of place, and that this mural may bring beauty and be good nourishment to this place and all that come in contact with this piece. 

 

The first panel honors the Japanese American farming community through an elder grandmother, an obāchan, holding her strawberry harvest. Golden geometry connects the berries to the surrounding landscape, suggesting that the memory of their cultivation remains woven into this place.

 

Flowers grow throughout the composition: echinacea and black-eyed Susans evoke healing and support for pollinators, while carnations and daffodils recall flowers cultivated by Japanese American farmers in the White River Valley and elsewhere along the West Coast. Here, carnations symbolize love, and daffodils speak to rebirth, new beginnings, and hopeful resilience.

 

The second panel explores ancestry and inheritance: What have we received from those before us, and what are we cultivating for future generations?

 

Celestial hands represent the care of our ancestors, offering seeds to the living and tending the growth unfolding in the present. Soil becomes a metaphor for the conditions that sustain a life. Those before us helped create the soil in which we grow; our actions today shape the ground for those still to come.

 

Strawberry plants extend runners that take root and become new plants. This pattern echoes our connections both to our ancestors and to those growing alongside us. Interwoven roots and companion plants remind us that growth happens through relationship. How are we enriching the soil for future life?

 

The third panel turns toward the Spring District today—a home to communities and companies working in the realm of information and technology. A light rail map and circuit board imagery connect the movement of people through the landscape with the movement of information and energy through digital space.

 

This panel carries the question of cultivation into our present lives: What are we growing through the information we share, the relationships we build, and the environments we create? What kind of soil are we preparing for future generations—in our digital worlds, our social and built environments, and the living land beneath us? 

 

My prayer is that this mural is a good offering to the spirits of the land and to those who gather here. May it strengthen a sense of place here by honoring the interdependent web of life—past, present, and future—that makes this place what it is.

-Mari Shibuya, artist