Chryssoula Jemanakis was born in Chania, Crete. She studied English and German and specialized in Technical in the UK. She traveled to Japan twice (2007-2008) and has been studying Japanese for more than 20 years. Since 2007 she has been more systematically involved in arts. She began her formal Sumie training in 2014 next to Michael-Odysseus Yakoumakis. Since 2016, she has been co-organizing Sumie seminars in Chania, while her work has been exhibited in Athens and Chania. Her Japanese friends call her Kuri, from Kurishuran, a transliteration of her Greek name. In 2010, at the Yuyuan Gardens of China, she entrusted a craftsman with her vision: a seal engraved with the kanjis of her Japanese name, namely “chestnut” (kuri – 栗), “pearl” (shu – 珠), and “orchid” (ran – 欄). It is with this seal that she signs her Sumie artworks for the last 15 years.