Behind a curtain of bamboo and flanked by a huge willow tree, up a flight of the steepest concrete steps, there stands a house in Yokohama's Yamate-cho that is home to an unacknowledged Living National Treasure.
Meet 91-year-old Yone Riber, who approaches across her lawn, hands outstretched in welcome. Dressed in black with a camel cardigan and the most dynamic piece of contemporary silver around her neck, she is the height of existential elegance.
Yone's parents were Taisho Period people, reaching their prime in those few years between 1912 and 1926 that witnessed such a flowering of liberal thinking and creative expression. Her mother -- small and delicate-looking but resilient and characterful -- produced and raised nine children.