I met Chizuko Niikawa Helton, sake sommelier, on June 30, 2010. I asked her what her romance was. She said, “my romance is my father. His death and his life woke me up.”
Before she came to New York, she was a fashion designer for 15 years in Tokyo. His death made her decide to quit her job in fashion and go back to her hometown in Akita prefecture. She realized there were so many beautiful treasures in Akita: water, rice, mountains, and culture. This made her think she should introduce these treasures to people all over the world as a Japanese woman. Now she lives in New York and has been introducing sake from Akita and all over Japan to people in the United States as a sake sommelier.
I felt his death also made her meet her American husband in New York who is going to wear Jimbei, a traditional Japanese men’s kimono for summer, on July 4th.