One might not imagine that Lesley Downer -- author of books on Basho's travels, Japan's richest family and now geisha -- started out in the culinary arena.
A vegetarian living in gaijin-scarce, small-town Japan in the early 1980s, Downer gradually built up a collection of recipes from the many Japanese women who she befriended, often in the kitchen.
"I realized there were no books on Japanese vegetarian cooking. Then I also realized that there were no books on Japan as I'd experienced it," comments the British author, noting that the majority of Western books on Japan are from a male perspective.