Since her student years, when she met the idea of omotenashi hospitality at the International Christian University in Japan, she has accepted her life’s mission to serve and entertain in beauty through the Tea ceremony and Japanese cuisine. In 1995, she opened the Japanese restaurant Miyabi in Prague and with great devotion she not only provides guests with daily operation, but also prepares special ochaji feasts, guided dinners, workshops, lectures and theater performances. In 2016, she received an award from the Japanese Ministry of Agriculture, Forest Administration and Fisheries for the long-term spread of the reputation of Japanese gastronomy, which is received annually by five people from all over the world.
Darja can prove her professional experience by a lifelong study of the Sado tea ceremony at Fugensado and Urasenke schools in Japan and the USA (the tea ceremony also includes the ability to prepare and serve selected kaiseki ryori cuisine) and a study of Buddhist shoujinryori cuisine at the Sankoin convent in Tokyo. She holds a bachelor’s degree from the International Christian University in Tokyo (1982), a master’s degree from Charles University in Prague (1999) and a master’s degree from the Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington DC, USA (2010). The central theme of her academic work is the comparison of the Western and Eastern cultures from the perspective of omotenashi hospitality. Darja received Name in the field of Japanese ikebana Sogetsu and is a founding member of its Czech branch. She is a collector of Tea ceremony utensils and items for high gastronomy in the spirit of the Japanese art of omotenashi.
