Maria Mariko Dedousi, a Japanese tea ceremony and flower arrangement master who appreciates and finds profound meanings in Japanese culture.
After working as an archaeological researcher in Japan, she moved to Australia to teach Japanese. In 1994, she moved to Saudi Arabia and she has been living in Dubai since 2005. In 2008, she began following the Urasenke Chado tea ceremony school and soon after the Sogetsu Ikebana school in flower arrangement.
“Saudi Arabia was a completely different world, but I loved its unique culture that fits with the country’s environment,” she told Arab News Japan. “You can understand the culture connected to its history and the environment. After Saudi Arabia, we lived in Lebanon for 8 years. Both Islamic worlds, but quite a different way of life…