News and Events
The River Sanctuary proudly presents Billie Furuichi.
Anchoring the Light:
A Silk Painting and Movement Meditation Workshop
June 19-20 - Santa Cruz, California
Saturday, June 19: 10 am - 7 pm
3:30 to 7:00 – Complimentary dinner of Vegan Recipes from the Heart prepared by gourmet Edy Henderson
Sunday, June 20: 2 pm - 4 pm
Reserve a Space today!
Half-price option available…
Call (831) 335-7283
or email.
Click image below to view workshop flyer
About the Artists
Isamu and Billie met in 1991 at his restaurant, Matoi Isakaya, in Kami Suwa, Japan. One night after Billie had finished teaching an English Conversation class, her students wanted to extend the class over sashimi and sake.
“We walked into this little tiny hallway-of-a-place,” Billie remembers.“You could hardly squeeze behind the other nine customers on counter stools, to get to bathroom which was situated outside the back door. I liked the place, and of course, I liked Master Matoi, too. So, I asked my students to take me back a few times, and one thing led to another. We had to make conversation using our dictionaries for quite a few months. He never would come to any of my English classes, but almost every night at 10, he would close up and we would go to the local Karaoke bar and sing until one or two in the morning. After we moved back to Denver and got married, he just picked up English watching old John Wayne movies and reading the newspaper.”
While living in Denver, they started another Matoi Restaurant, which gained much acclaim from newspapers and food critiques. Reviews from those years can be accessed through a Google search on "Isamu Matoi Furuichi".