Akiko Aoyagi

Biography

Early life and education Akiko Aoyagi was born in Tokyo, Japan, on January 24, 1950. She attended the Quaker Friends School and then the Women's College of the Arts, where she studied Fashion Design. Her thesis project explored "designing clothing for children with physical and mental deficits."

After graduation, she worked as a fashion designer in Tokyo, She also thought of becoming a Catholic nun. her sister set Aoyagi up on a blind date with William Shurtleff (an American who was a student of Suzuki Roshi at the Tassajara Zen Mountain Center, and was in Japan in order to help Roshi set up a center). Shurtleff was her sister's classmate in a Japanese class at a university in Tokyo. Barry states that via the Center, Aoyagi and Shurtleff were able to act as "consultants to the growing international soyfoods industry." They have a son.

American author and professor Rynn Berry interviewed Aoyagi and Shurtleff for a chapter in the "Visionaries" section of his 1995 book Famous Vegetarians and Their Favorite Recipes: Lives and Lore from Buddha to the Beatles. Additional "Visionaries" include Bronson Alcott, Sylvester Graham, John Harvey Kellogg, Henry Stephens Salt, and Frances Moore Lappe.

Partial bibliography Aoyagi and Shurtleff have 66 books in print.