For Katherine Tamiko Arguile, the Japanese food her mother cooked was a portal to a part of her that sometimes felt lost in the past. In Japan, food is never just food: it expresses a complex and fascinating history, and is tied to tradition and spirituality intrinsic to Japanese culture.

Exploring the meals of her childhood through Japan’s twenty-four sekki (seasons), Katherine untangles the threads of meaning, memory and ritual woven through every glistening bowl of rice, every tender slice of sashimi and each steaming cup of green tea.

With rich, visceral prose, vivid insight and searing emotional honesty, Meshi (‘rice’ or ‘meal’) reveals the culture and spirit of one of the world’s most beloved cuisines.

Born and raised in Tokyo, Katherine Tamiko Arguile is an author and arts journalist of mixed Japanese and British descent. Her award-winning short stories have been published in the UK and in Australia, and her debut novel, The Things She Owned, was published in 2020 and shortlisted for the 2021 MUD Literary Prize for best debut literary fiction novel by an Australian author. She migrated to Australia after living for almost two decades in London. She lives beside the sea on the metropolitan coast of Adelaide, on the lands of the Kaurna people.

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