Yuka Cass was born and grew up in Wakayama, Japan. When she was little she enjoyed flowers, music and drawing. She continued her love for the arts throught high school and even pursued singing at Osaka College of Music. She was a special education teacher in Japan. She later met her husband and moved to the U.S. in 2005.

She first joined a class to learn Yang Style Tai Chi Long Form from Kevin Beane while also being pregnant with her first daughter in 2006 . After more than 15 years of Tai Chi practice, she started teaching at Portsmouth Aikido in Jan. 2021 with her teacher Kevin’s advice.

Yuka also discovered her passion for Shodo(Japanese Calligraphy) after meeting her Shodo teacher, Yoshi Shibata, who was a guest instructor at Portsmouth Aikido. He introduced “Inroha Uta”(Healing Calligraphy) to her in 2014, and he persuaded her to teach Shodo at Portsmouth Aikido. Since then, she has been teaching Shodo on and off for almost 10 years to people of all ages.

After many years of getting contacted by many people to teach Japanese she decided to start teaching private Japanese classes, which she teaches how to have a conversations, read and write in Japanese as well as sharing Japanese culture (including Japanese food, seasonal events, etiquette and more).