A Taste Of Japanese Culture

Consider Hisako Tanaka an ambassador.

“I want to introduce some of my culture so people might have some understanding of Japan and the religion and philosophy of the Japanese people,” she says.

She has covered the walls of her Coeur d’Alene restaurant, Takara, with the bold-stroke Ichigai paintings popular now with Japan’s intellectuals.

Hisako displays delicately painted rice bowls and sake sets, paper kites and Japanese calendars. She fills a rack with current Japanese newspapers and magazines. She’s searching for space to stack Japanese literature.

“I want more than a Japanese restaurant,” she says. “I want a Japanese cultural center.”

Takara opened in downtown Coeur d’Alene in 1992, but Hisako had little say about the restaurant’s ambience. As a visa officer at the American consulate in Tokyo in 1981, she had helped a Japanese woman with the international paperwork to open a restaurant in Seattle.

That was the first Takara. The woman eventually hired Hisako’s son to open the Coeur d’Alene branch. Hisako invested in the business and ended up owning it this year after family needs forced her friend to return to Japan.

Takara fell into Hisako’s life the year she retired after 40 years at the consulate. As thanks for her service, the American government granted her permanent residence in the United States. Hisako moved to Coeur d’Alene.

Diners ask her about Japan, and Hisako wants to teach them. At 70, she’s gentle and gracious and more comfortable with subtle lessons than group performances such as readings.

Visiting Japanese students and a few Japanese who live in the area regularly stop by Takara. They read Hisako’s periodicals and admire the Ichigai cartoonlike renditions of dharma and Zen Buddhist monks.

Hisako enjoys the cultural companionship. “I want people to know that when they come to eat, we have these pictures,” she says, gazing up at Ichigai’s Buddhist prophet. “I’ll bring more if they tell me what they want.”

Wrap it up

It’s easy to help the Coeur d’Alene Public Library and save yourself some work this holiday season. Cart your gifts to the library’s gift-wrapping booth near the Third Street and Sherman Avenue entrance of the Coeur d’Alene Plaza Shops downtown.

Friends of the Library buys miles of ribbon and piles of paper and schedules dozens of volunteers for its wrapfest.

The booth will open Friday and will operate the same hours as the shops through Christmas Eve.

Hear, hear!

The Kiwanis Club knows how to push a cause: Bring people together for a good time. The club, along with Self Help for the Hard of Hearing and Kootenai Medical Center, has planned several shebangs in the next weeks to raise money to buy equipment to test infant hearing.

Without special equipment, it’s hard to tell that infants can’t hear well. And children need to hear to develop good speech and language skills. The equipment costs $25,000.

Here’s how to chip in: Attend a concert featuring top-notch violinist Cathyanne Lavins and pianist Cynthia Haberman at Coeur d’Alene’s Church of the Nazarene, 4105 Honeysuckle Drive, at 6 p.m. Dec. 6.

Or go to a silent auction at Capone’s Pub and Grill, 751 N. Fourth, on Dec. 10. Or just write a check to one of the three groups involved. It’ll be well-spent money.

Turkey tales

Thanksgiving is far too complicated, what with all the cooking involved, to go smoothly.

Scribble down your funny mishaps this year for Cynthia Taggart, “Close to Home,” 608 Northwest Blvd., Suite 200, Coeur d’Alene 83814; or send a fax to 765-7149, call 765-7128 or send e-mail to cynthiat@spokesman.com.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color photo