Mira (Mimi) Locher is an architect, educator, and writer working in the U.S. and Japan. She is a graduate of Smith College and received her Master of Architecture degree from the University of Pennsylvania. After working for architecture firms for a decade, including seven years with Team Zoo Atelier Mobile in Japan, she set up an architectural practice with Takayuki Murakami (www.kajikaarchitecture.com). Locher is an associate professor of architecture in the College of Architecture + Planning at the University of Utah, and the author of Super Potato Design, Traditional Japanese Architecture, and Zen Gardens. She is an avid traveler with a keen interest in traditional building crafts and vernacular settlements.

Shunmyo Masuno is the head priest of Kenkohji, a Soto Zen Buddhist temple in Yokohama, as well as the principal and founder of Japan Landscape Consultants. He is a graduate of Tamagawa University and served his garden apprenticeship under the late Saito Katsuo, He founded Japan Landscape Consultants in 1982 and has received numerous awards for his landscape and garden designs, including the prestigious National Grand Prize from the Japanese Institute of Landscape Architecture. He is a professor at Tama Art University and teaches and lectures internationally. Masuno is the author of more than 100 books on the practice and teachings of Zen Buddhism, as well as garden design and landscape architecture.