Miyo Harumi, a retired chef and restaurateur whose first name is synonymous with Japanese food in Hilo, died June 3 at Pohai Malama Care Home in Hilo. She was 82.

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Miyo Harumi, a retired chef and restaurateur whose first name is synonymous with Japanese food in Hilo, died June 3 at Pohai Malama Care Home in Hilo. She was 82.

Born in Tokyo, Harumi opened Miyo’s in the Waiakea Villas in 1987, serving simple, authentic, accessible Japanese home-style cooking. After a quarter-century of successful operation despite infrastructure issues, the restaurant moved in 2012 to its current location in the Manono Marketplace.

Harumi retired in 2019 and sold the restaurant — which still bears her name — to chef Louis Pauole, her longtime right hand.

“She liked to cook. My mother really liked cooking, and she was influenced by that,” said younger brother Sango Harumi, who lives in Auburn, Calif., a Bay Area suburb. “I was always amazed at the scale of the restaurant, Miyo’s, and how she could manage.”

He said his older sister, who originally came to the U.S. in 1964 to study at San Jose State University in California, started informally in the hospitality industry by cooking for her American host family.

“She entertained with Japanese food, and people liked it,” he said.

Describing his sister as “a pioneer,” Sango Harumi said he, a sister, a niece and a nephew came to the U.S. “after Miyo’s path.”

“And a lot of people, including myself, were influenced by her and her experience,” he said. “She used to take me to a lot of movies — musicals like ‘West Side Story’ and American westerns.”

She also exposed her brother to “music before the Beatles, like Elvis Presley and other American pop stars like Ricky Nelson. She had a lot of records.”

And while arts and entertainment were always a part of her life, Miyo’s passion and talents ran to the culinary arts.

Sango Harumi said his sister returned to Japan temporarily and opened a Mexican restaurant. Upon her return, she opened two Japanese restaurants in San Francisco, the first in the Mission District, the second near Chinatown.

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“Both restaurants were called ‘Globos,’ which means balloons in Spanish,” he said.

Miyo Harumi moved to Hawaii in the 1980s, first to Honolulu and then to Hilo, where her impact was immediate and lasting.

“Miyo was like a second mother to me and was an important role model,” said Suzanne Wang, a potter and ceramicist. “I lived with Miyo for a time during my teenage years. Midway through my freshman semester of high school, I discovered an art center where I could work with clay. It was on a weekday, so she let me cut class once a week to go, knowing how important it was for me to be creative. I’ll never forget that.

“During my teenage years especially, I looked up to her as an example of how to live with kindness, humility and integrity. She never preached or sought attention for herself. She simply led by example.”

Wang described dinner parties at Harumi’s house as a gustatory theater-in-the-round.

“She would set an electric griddle in the middle of her round dining table and, while everyone sat around sharing pupus and conversation, she would cook miniature okonomiyaki — savory Japanese pancakes with an array of toppings — right there for her guests. The atmosphere was always warm and relaxed,” she said.

Harumi and her food were also present beyond the restaurant’s walls, at events such as the annual New Year’s mochi pounding celebration at Akiko’s Buddhist Bed-and-Breakfast in Hakalau. The innkeeper, Akiko Masuda, pointed out in 2019 on Facebook that Harumi, prior to retirement, made meals for the weekly senior luncheons at the Hakalau Jodo Mission.

“We are grateful for all the thousands of meals Miyo’s has prepared for us over the years,” Masuda wrote.

In addition to Sango Harumi, survivors include sister Yuri Koyama and brother Jiro Harumi, both in Japan. She was predeceased by her life partner, Fred Stover.

A celebration of life is scheduled for 11:30 a.m. Saturday, July 25, at Hilo Meishoin Buddhist Temple, 97 Olona St. Those planning to attend are asked to RSVP at [email protected].

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Email John Burnett at [email protected].