Those who know him well agree that Jorge Ferreras is unusually talented and highly original. With his whimsies, his art and piano he has a gift for lighting up the space he occupies. He is an architect and artist, NHK radio man and university lecturer who came from Argentina to study and live in Japan.

The fourth boy of five brothers, he grew up in a small city in the pampas. He said, "At 17, in order to attend university, I moved to Cordoba. I saw the first Japanese I had ever seen there. In the same neighborhood as my boarding house was a school for Japanese children. I loved to look at those Japanese kids walking by. They all wore their beautiful smiles."

For a second time, Ferreras became conscious of Japanese people when he worked with an architect whose father was Japanese and mother German. "She was a very good designer who made me fall in love with Japanese architecture and design in general," he said.