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Most Saturday nights, young Mika races to her grandfather's house, where she finds him painting artful calligraphy. He chants strange words in a stirring voice, surrounded by a house filled with eccentric treasures. Mika later sifts through remembered moments as she pieces together a fuller appreciation of her grandfather. She recalls favorite passages from an ancient book, Grandfather's collection of fine writing tools, and the red stamp marking his most distinguished art. Mika wonders how it would have sounded to hear her grandfather play the biwa. What else didn't she know about this hardworking, dedicated, gentle man? Mika's story invites us to wonder: Who were our grandparents? How will we hold them close when their house and most of their things are gone?
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Mika Matsuno was born in Kyoto, Japan, in 1965 and grew up in a house along Shichijo Street, a stone's throw from Kyoto's famed Kamo River. She spent much of her childhood helping out in her grandfather's restaurant, an old establishment called Minori, which thrived for several generations in her family until it closed for good in 2014. Through her grandfather, she also developed a talent for shodo, the traditional art of Japanese calligraphy. Mika attended Kyoto's Doshisha University, where she majored in psychology. After graduating in 1988, she went to work for a large Japanese electronics company for close to a decade. Weary of desk work, in 1997 Mika chose to do a bit of exploring and moved to Italy, living for a stretch in both Florence and Ravenna, where she studied the Italian language and developed a keen interest in local culinary and cultural traditions. Upon returning to Japan, she worked at various jobs while continuing her foreign language studies. For four years starting in 2007, Mika built and helped run a small English language school in Kyoto and subsequently taught basic Japanese to foreign workers at a vocational college. For the past thirty years, Mika has also practiced the ancient custom of tea ceremony, in the Urasenke tradition, a passion she pursues to this day.
