Reina and Tatsuo – now living in Portugal with their 7-year-old son – often say, with a smile, that they had been uncovering traces of “Portuguese DNA” in their lives long before moving here, signs whose meaning became clear only in retrospect.
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Portugal was present in their imagination long before they even thought of moving: from learning about the Namban Byobu folding screens that depict early encounters between Portuguese sailors and Japanese people in the 16th and 17th centuries, to discovering a striking blue-and-white azulejo wall by Portuguese artist Rogério Ribeiro in Usuki, Oita.
A visit to the Portuguese coast in 2023 prompted their son to exclaim with joy, “I will live here!”—a moment that set the family on a path to relocate to Lisbon in spring 2024, shipping 30 boxes twice.
They quickly embraced Portuguese life, learning traditional cooking through playful Google Translate adventures and organising cultural events celebrating 480 years of Japan–Portugal relations, featuring food, performances, and authentic tea and matcha ceremonies. Their cherished objects—from a delicate azulejo tile to a bamboo kumade—embody the deep, enduring bond they have woven between Japan and Portugal, a connection they call their “Portuguese DNA,” which inspired their move and the choice to raise their son amidst the culture they have come to love.
rEINA, TATSUO & IO'S MOSAIC
[Left] Tatsuo carrying the Olympic torch along the street named after de Morais
[Right] A book by the Portuguese writer, Wenceslau de Morais
In 2021, Tatsuo was a torchbearer for the Tokyo Olympics in Tokushima, a city which is closely tied to Wenceslau de Morais, the Portuguese naval officer and writer who settled in Japan after journeys through Asia. Fascinated by Japanese culture, he chronicled his encounters and daily life in works that blended ethnographic observation with personal reflection.
His writings introduced Portuguese readers to a vivid, intimate portrait of Japan in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
By coincidence, Tatsuo ran along a street named after Morais, unknowingly retracing the path of a man who had journeyed the opposite way more than a century before.
Io jumping with joy on the ocean shore
On our very first trip to Portugal in 2023, our son leapt with joy on the ocean shore and shouted, ‘I will live here!’, pointing at the beach. In that instant, we decided to move to Portugal.