Tsuruko

A year’s record in Kyoto’s Yase, compiled as the crowning achievement of tea-ceremony kaiseki chef Tsuruko Hanzawa.

Her gaze toward plants, living creatures, and people is always filled with deep compassion. The way she gently gathers up the small lives blooming at her feet and transforms them into a single bite of food conveys a whole way of being, embodied through the tea ceremony. In addition to the seasonal landscapes of Yase, this book also includes explanations of twelve months of herbal teas and, in part, instructions for preparing some of the dishes.

Carrying Tsuruko’s own wish that readers “reflect on the messages that food carries from the soil,” this volume was republished in March 2026 as a newly designed second edition.