N.Z. Lamb Chops Served At Home Of Mr Sato

Press, Volume CVII, Issue 31501, 16 October 1967, Page 2

N.Z. Lamb Chops Served At Home Of Mr Sato

Lamb chops from New Zealand are o ften served at the private residence of the Prime Minister of Japan (Mr Sato) —if it is a meat meal.

Mrs Sato, who is very fond of cooking, likes lamb chops, grills them and occasionally serves mint sauce with them, a spokesman for Mrs Sato said last evening.

Occasionally Mrs Sato also makes a mutton stew. “I think your Government has done a very good job in promoting New Zealand lamb and mutton in Japan, a traditionally fish, beef and porkeating country,” the spokesman said.

He was speaking to “The Press” at an informal function held last evening at the United Service Hotel, where the Mayor of Christchurch (Sir George Manning) and Ladv Manning, local members of Parliament, their wives, members of the Japan Society of Christchurch and others met Mr and Mrs Sato informally. “We had a wonderful visit to Mount Cook. It was a warm, sunny day and we saw the mountain very clearly. Wd appreciated this opportunity to relaxl, for rM and Mrs Sato are having a strenuous tour,” he said. No Interviews

Mrs Sato gave no interviews when she was in Christchurch. But to watch her talking to others it was easy to see how she gained her reputation for being a charming, frank and warm-hearted woman. She is also a gracious and highly intelligent woman, skilled in her country’s traditional arts.

She is a qualified teacher of flower arrangement of the Ohara School of Ikebana. AU the rooms of her private residence, as well as the

Japanese rooms of the official residence, are adorned with her own flower arrangements, which are always greatly admired by visitors. In the classic art of the tea ceremony, Mrs Sato is a distinguished disciple of the Urasenke School. She teaches this art also. One of her pupils is Mrs Kimura, wife of the Chief Cabinet Secretary. Enjoys Quiet At times Mrs Sato withdraws to her own room at home to relax quietly and enjoy the calming atmosphere of the incense ceremony, another traditional art from Japan’s long cultural history. Mrs Sato is a patron of the performing arts and frequently attends exhibitions. She is a devoted reader of classic and modern literature, and has many acquaintances among writers and artists. Throughout her busy schedule as the wife of her country’s Prime Minister, Mrs Sato keeps one thought uppermost in her mind—her husband’s health. She carefully supervises the preparation of his breakfasts and dinners, taking care that his diet does not include foods that are too fattening. Mrs Sato was born in 1907 in Yamaguchi Prefecture, on the western edge of Japan’s main island of Honshu. She attended Bofu Girls' High School In Yamaguchi and later Aoyama Gakuin University, Tokyo. She was married in 1926 to Eisaku Sato, then employed in a local bureau of the Japanese National Railways in Moji City. It was a simple life in those days. But as Mr Sato's career developed, so Hiroko Sato's life became more active and complicated. Apart from guiding the education of her two children,

her daily routine came to include social and public activities, such as taking part in social welfare programmes. Mrs Sato has said that her dream of the future is: “to live quietly with my husband in a small apartment, which we will rent, when he retires from the political world.” Many of the women in the crowd waiting at the airport on Saturday wondered if Mrs Sato would be wearing the colourful national dress of Japan. But they were not disappointed when she appeared at the top of the gangway, a trim, dimunitive figure in navy and white. She wore a navy edge-to-edge wool coat over a white dress with a wide over-check

in navy, mid-knee length. Her small white felt hat was swathed in navy and the upswept brim was faced with the same colour. A double string of pearls and a pearl flower-brooch completed her ensemble.

During the party’s half-hour stop-over at Christchurch Airport before leaving for Mount Cook, Mrs Sato spent most of the time chatting to Mrs Harumi Takeuchi, wife of the Japanese Ambassador to New Zealand, and Mrs B. E. Talboys, wife of the Minister of Agriculture. For last evening’s informal gathering, Mrs Sato wore a pastel blue wool suit.