Editing Akiko Aoyagi


{{Infobox person
| name          = Akiko Aoyagi
| image         = 
| alt           = 
| caption       = 
| birth_name    = 
| birth_date    =   {{Birth date and age|1950|01|24}}
| birth_place   =[[Tokyo, Japan]]
| death_date    =
| death_place   = 
| nationality   = 
| other_names   = Akiko Aoyagi Shurtleff<ref name=officialfb>{{cite web
|url=https://www.facebook.com/mycellakiko
|title=Akiko Aoyagi Shurtleff
|access-date=2023-03-28
|last=Aoyagi
|first=Akiko
|date=2023-01-27
|publisher=Facebook
}}</ref>
| occupation    = Cookbook Author<br>Illustrator<br>Graphic Designer
| years_active  = 
| known_for     = The Book of Tofu, The Book of Miso, The Book of Tempeh<ref name=berry175>{{cite book
 |last=Berry
 |first=Rynn
 |author-link=Rynn Berry
 |date=1995
 |title=Famous Vegetarians and Their Favorite Recipes: Lives and Lore from Buddha to the Beatles 
 |url=
 |location=
 |publisher=Pythagorean Publishers
 |page= 175
 |isbn=0962616915
}}</ref>
| notable_works =
}}

''' Akiko Aoyagi''' (born January 24, 1950) is an American cookbook author and artist. She is best known as the recipe developer, illustrator, and co-author  (with [[William Shurtleff]]) of the [[Book series|soy-based cookbook series]] ''The Book of Tofu'' (1975), ''The Book of Miso'' (1976), and ''The Book of Tempeh'' (1979), that had a strong impact on the [[Natural food|natural foods movement]] within the [[Counterculture of the 1960s|American counterculture]].<ref name=berry171/>

==Early life==
Akiko Aoyagi was born in [[Tokyo, Japan]]. She attended the [[Quaker]] Friends School and then the Women’s College of the Arts, where she studied Fashion Design.<ref name=berry174-5>{{cite book
 |last=Berry
 |first=Rynn
 |author-link=Rynn Berry
 |date=1995
 |title=Famous Vegetarians and Their Favorite Recipes: Lives and Lore from Buddha to the Beatles 
 |url=
 |location=
 |publisher=Pythagorean Publishers
 |page= 174-175
 |isbn=0962616915
}}</ref> Her thesis project explored “designing clothing for children with physical and mental deficits.”<ref name=HF45/>

After graduation,  she worked as a fashion designer in Tokyo,<ref name=me/> where she lightened her hair and wore "tie-dye maxi-skirts.”<ref name=HF45>{{Cite book |title=Hippie Food: How Back-To-The-Landers, Longhairs, and Revolutionaries Changed the Way We Eat |last=Kauffman |first= Jonathan|authorlink=Jonathan Kauffman |year=2018 |publisher=[[William Morrow and Company|William Morrow]] |location= |isbn=978-0062437303 |page=145}}</ref> She was frustrated  however, as she found herself in “a pressure-packed, highspeed job and I did not like it. It was a superficial, very exhausting life which I wanted to change. I wanted to go to Africa with the Peace Corps.”<ref name=me>{{cite web
|url=https://www.motherearthnews.com/real-food/akiko-aoyagi-zmaz77mazbon/
|title=The Plowboy Interview: Bill Shurtleff and Akiko Aoyagi
|access-date=2023-03-28
|last=
|first=
|date=1977-03-01
|publisher=[[Mother Earth News]]
}}</ref> She also thought of becoming a Catholic nun.<ref name=HF45/>

In 1971,<ref name=berry174-5/><ref name=westnyt>{{cite news
| last1                 = Sass
| first1                = Lorna
| date                  = September 24, 1980
| title                    = A Couple on a Tofu Mission in the West
| work            = [[The New York Times]]
| page                  = C3
}}</ref><ref name=me/> her sister set Aoyagi up on a blind date with [[William Shurtleff]] (an American who was a student of [[Shunryū Suzuki|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.<ref name=me/><ref name=HF45/> They discovered that they shared interests in [[Zen meditation]].<ref name=berry174-5/> Ultimately, Shurtleff did not return to Tassajara, and Aoyagi “sold all her clothes, quit the fashion company, and moved in with him.”<ref name=HF45/>  They began to hitchhike together throughout Japan, and talked about [[Hippie trail|traveling to India to visit ashrams]].<ref name=HF45/>

==Soy==
===The Books of Tofu, Miso, and Tempeh===
During that same time period in 1971, Shurtleff read the (then) recently released ''[[Diet for a Small Planet]]'' by [[Frances Moore Lappé]], which argued that  [[soybean]]’s were a superior source of protein.<ref name=HF45/><ref name=HF46>{{Cite book |title=Hippie Food: How Back-To-The-Landers, Longhairs, and Revolutionaries Changed the Way We Eat |last=Kauffman |first= Jonathan|authorlink=Jonathan Kauffman |year=2018 |publisher=[[William Morrow and Company|William Morrow]] |location= |isbn=978-0062437303 |page=146}}</ref> Using Lappe’s book as a reference, Shurtleff wanted to learn more about [[Tofu]].<ref name=HF46/> Aoyagi later noted that although she had grown up with Tofu, (“just like you grow up with bread in this country”),<ref name=me/> Shurtleff’s interest in it gave her a new appreciation for the art of [[Tofu#Production|Tofu production]].<ref name=berry174-5/> Aoyagi introduced Shurtleff to “[[Kyoto]]’s [[Haute cuisine]] Tofu restaurants” where a 12 course meal was about three dollars. It was during one of these meals that they decided to create “a tofu cookbook that that would show Westerners how to prepare tofu.”<ref name=berry174-5/><ref name=westnyt/><ref name=me/> Aoyogi began to experiment with cooking tofu, “dredging up memories of dishes that she had grown up eating or had read about.”<ref name=HF46/>  Over the next few years they conducted research,  traveling, visiting tofu factories, ashram’s, and “grandmother’s who still remember the old ways,” learning the various elements of tofu production.<ref name=berry174-5/><ref name=me/><ref name=HF48/>

In 1972, they signed a book contract with  Nahum and Beverly Stiskin, who ran the small independent publishing company Autumn Press (which published books on  [[Macrobiotic diet|macrobiotics]] and the [[Shinto]] religion).<ref name=HF46/> Shurtleff apprenticed with “tofu master,” Toshio Arai, to learn traditional approaches to tofu production, and was sometimes joined by Aoyagi.<ref name=HF47>{{Cite book |title=Hippie Food: How Back-To-The-Landers, Longhairs, and Revolutionaries Changed the Way We Eat |last=Kauffman |first= Jonathan|authorlink=Jonathan Kauffman |year=2018 |publisher=[[William Morrow and Company|William Morrow]] |location= |isbn=978-0062437303 |page=147}}</ref> Aoyagi began to test methods of reproducing the process at home, taking “more than one hundred times to get a reliable, reproducible method that [Shurtleff] could describe in words and she could illustrate with in-brush sketches.”<ref name=HF47/> She began by “re-creating the recipes she would see in tofu shops, finding uses for soybeans at all points during the process.”<ref name=HF48>{{Cite book |title=Hippie Food: How Back-To-The-Landers, Longhairs, and Revolutionaries Changed the Way We Eat |last=Kauffman |first= Jonathan|authorlink=Jonathan Kauffman |year=2018 |publisher=[[William Morrow and Company|William Morrow]] |location= |isbn=978-0062437303 |page=148}}</ref> She would then “document each recipe in a mix of English and Japanese.”<ref name=HF48/> She also began to research western cookbooks such as ''[[The Joy of Cooking]]'', “and picked out dishes she thought she could remake with tofu.”<ref name=HF48/> In addition, she was creating illustrations for the recipes.<ref name=HF48/>

''The Book of Tofu'', which contained all of  Aoyagi’s crafted recipes and related illustrations,  was published by Autumn Press in 1975.<ref name=berry174-5/><ref name=HF61>{{Cite book |title=Hippie Food: How Back-To-The-Landers, Longhairs, and Revolutionaries Changed the Way We Eat |last=Kauffman |first= Jonathan|authorlink=Jonathan Kauffman |year=2018 |publisher=[[William Morrow and Company|William Morrow]] |location= |isbn=978-0062437303 |page=161}}</ref> According to [[The New York Times]], it was “received so enthusiastically,” that it was picked up by [[Ballantine Books]] for a mass market edition the following year.<ref name=westnyt/> Barry adds that the original 5000 copies sold out within the first month, and that 10,000 copies were printed in 1976.<ref name=berry174-5/> In response, Aoyagi and Shurtleff next produced ''The Book of Miso'' (1976).<ref name=HF61/><ref name=berry174-5/><ref name=westnyt/> 

Next they came to the [[United States]] and traveled around the country in a [[Dodge Tradesman|Dodge Ram van]] to publicize both books. They gave interviews, met countercultural communities, and visited Zen centers.<ref name=HF62>{{Cite book |title=Hippie Food: How Back-To-The-Landers, Longhairs, and Revolutionaries Changed the Way We Eat |last=Kauffman |first= Jonathan|authorlink=Jonathan Kauffman |year=2018 |publisher=[[William Morrow and Company|William Morrow]] |location= |isbn=978-0062437303 |page=162}}</ref> Aoyagi later remembered the experience of sixty-four stops in four months as “grueling.”<ref name=HF63>{{Cite book |title=Hippie Food: How Back-To-The-Landers, Longhairs, and Revolutionaries Changed the Way We Eat |last=Kauffman |first= Jonathan|authorlink=Jonathan Kauffman |year=2018 |publisher=[[William Morrow and Company|William Morrow]] |location= |isbn=978-0062437303 |page=163}}</ref> They also visited the vegan-based intentional community,  [[The Farm (Tennessee)|The Farm]], as Shurtleff had previously been in communication with them about Tempeh production, and had a chance to study it while there.<ref name=HF63/> The successful tour led to high book sales.<ref name=HF64>{{Cite book |title=Hippie Food: How Back-To-The-Landers, Longhairs, and Revolutionaries Changed the Way We Eat |last=Kauffman |first= Jonathan|authorlink=Jonathan Kauffman |year=2018 |publisher=[[William Morrow and Company|William Morrow]] |location= |isbn=978-0062437303 |page=164}}</ref> In addition, in 1979, they published ''The Book of Tempeh'' (1979).<ref name=berry174-5/><ref name=westnyt/>

===Soy centers and organizations===
In 1975, Aoyagi and Shurtleff co-founded the New Age Foods Study Center (in Tokyo and California), where they tested recipes and distributed information on soy.<ref name=westnyt/> The next year in 1976, Aoyagi and Shurtleff co-founded The SoyInfo Center, which they intended to be the “world's leading source of information on soy, especially soyfoods, new industrial uses, and history, in electronic database, online and printed book formats.”<ref name=soyinfo>{{cite web
|url=https://www.soyinfocenter.com/aboutus-authors.php
|title=SoyInfo Center: About Us, About the Authors
|access-date=2023-03-28
|last=
|first=
|date=
|publisher=soyinfocenter.com
}}</ref> Barry states that via the Center, Aoyagi and Shurtleff were able to act as “consultants to the growing international soyfoods industry.”<ref name=berry174-5/> Finally in 1978, Aoyagi and Shurtleff co-founded The Soycrafters Association of North America that held conferences attended by countercultural food companies.<ref name=westnyt/><ref name=HF64/>

==Legacy==
Food writer  [[Jonathan Kauffman]] states in ''Hippie Food: How Back-To-The-Landers, Longhairs, and Revolutionaries Changed the Way We Eat (''2018), that [[Tofurky]] developed due to the influence of [[Frances Moore Lappé]], Aoyagi and Shurtleff, and [[The Farm (Tennessee)|The Farm]].<ref name=HF66>{{Cite book |title=Hippie Food: How Back-To-The-Landers, Longhairs, and Revolutionaries Changed the Way We Eat |last=Kauffman |first= Jonathan|authorlink=Jonathan Kauffman |year=2018 |publisher=[[William Morrow and Company|William Morrow]] |location= |isbn=978-0062437303 |page=166}}</ref> He also credits the rise of Tofu shops, Tofu cookbooks, and vegetarian cookbooks that use Tofu in the West to Aoyagi and Shurtleff.<ref name=HF64/> In discussing Kauffman’s book, [[San Francisco Chronicle]] journalist Steve Silberman refers to Aoyagi and Shurtleff as “pioneers” who “placed tofu at the center of millions of vegetarian tables in the West after falling in love with the snowy pressed soy curds as Zen students in Kyoto.”<ref name= sfchron18>{{cite web
|url=https://www.sfgate.com/books/article/Hippie-Food-by-Jonathan-Kauffman-12507979.php
|title='Hippie Food,' by Jonathan Kauffman
|access-date=2023-03-28
|last=Silberman
|first=Steve
|date=2018-01-18
|publisher=[[San Francisco Chronicle]]
}}</ref>

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]].<ref name=berrycontents>{{cite book
 |last=Berry
 |first=Rynn
 |author-link=Rynn Berry
 |date=1995
 |title=Famous Vegetarians and Their Favorite Recipes: Lives and Lore from Buddha to the Beatles 
 |url=
 |location=
 |publisher=Pythagorean Publishers
 |page= x-xii
 |isbn=0962616915
}}</ref> Barry begins the chapter on Aoyagi and Shurtleff by asserting that in 1975, “few Americans had even the vaguest idea of what it [Tofu] was. Now [in 1995] it is sold in countless supermarkets and health food stores, and its name as well as its substance is on everyone’s lips. Credit for this extraordinary surge in popularity must go to William Shurtleff and his Tokyo-born wife, Akiko Aoyagi. They are the co-authors of ''The Book of Tofu'' which has become the bible for tofu enthusiasts."<ref name=berry171>{{cite book
 |last=Berry
 |first=Rynn
 |author-link=Rynn Berry
 |date=1995
 |title=Famous Vegetarians and Their Favorite Recipes: Lives and Lore from Buddha to the Beatles 
 |url=
 |location=
 |publisher=Pythagorean Publishers
 |page= 171
 |isbn=0962616915
}}</ref>  “The Rynn Berry Jr. Papers” in  [[North Carolina State University]]  Libraries’ Special Collections and Research Center, contains his research journal with “the transcript of an interview by Berry with soy food specialists William Shurtleff and Akiko Aoyagi” and the original illustration of the couple used in ''Famous Vegetarians''.<ref name=sc>{{cite web
|url=https://www.lib.ncsu.edu/news/special-collections/discovering-treasures-while-processing-the-rynn-berry-jr-papers
|title=Discovering Treasures While Processing the Rynn Berry, Jr. Papers
|access-date=2023-03-28
|last=Abraham
|first=Laura
|date=2018-03-09
|publisher= [[North Carolina State University]] Libraries}}</ref>

==Personal life==
Aoyagi and Shurtleff were married,<ref name=berry171/> but later divorced in the early 90’s.<ref name=talk>{{cite web
|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1996-09-26-fo-47540-story.html
|title=Soy Talk With Father Tofu
|access-date=2023-03-28
|last=Sheridan
|first=Margaret
|date=1996-09-26
|work=[[Los Angeles Times]]
}}</ref> They have a son.<ref name=talk/><ref name=officialfb/>

==Partial bibliography==
Aoyagi and Shurtleff have 66 books in print.<ref name=inprint>{{cite web
|url=https://www.soyinfocenter.com/aboutus-introduction.php
|title=Introducing SoyInfo Center
|access-date=2023-03-29
|last=
|first=
|date=
|publisher=soyinfocenter.com
}}</ref> 

*{{cite book |last1=Shurtleff |first1=William |author-link1=William Shurtleff |last2=Aoyagi |first2=Akiko |author-link2= |title=The Book of Tofu|publisher=Autumn Press |publication-date=1975 |isbn=0914398059 }}
*{{cite book |last1=Shurtleff |first1=William |last2=Aoyagi |first2=Akiko |author-link2= |title=The Book of Miso|year=1976 |publisher=Autumn Press |publication-date=1976 |isbn= 978-0394734323}}
*{{cite book |last1=Shurtleff |first1=William |last2=Aoyagi |first2=Akiko |author-link2= |title=The Book of Tempeh|year=1979 |publisher=HarperCollins |publication-date=1979 |isbn=9780060907105}}

===Additional===
* Shurtleff, William; Aoyagi, Akiko. ''The Book of [[Kudzu]]: A Culinary & Healing Guide.'' Brookline, MA: Autumn Press, 1977. ISBN 0-394-42068-3.
* Shurtleff, William., Aoyagi, Akiko. ''Using Tofu, Tempeh & Other Soyfoods in Restaurants, Delis & Cafeterias.'' Lafayette, CA: Soyfoods Center, 1982. ISBN 9780933332072, 0933332076
* Shurtleff, William; Aoyagi, Akiko. ''[[Mildred Lager]] - History of Her Work With Soyfoods and Natural Foods in Los Angeles (1900-1960): Extensively Annotated Bibliography and Sourcebook.'' Lafayette, CA: Soyinfo Center, 2009. ISBN 978-1-928914-26-6.
* Shurtleff, William; Aoyagi, Akiko. ''History of [[Nattō|Natto]] and Its Relatives (1405–2012).'' Lafayette, CA, Soyinfo Center: 2012.
* Shurtleff, William; Aoyagi, Akiko. ''History of Roasted Whole Soy Flour ([[Kinako]]), Soy Coffee, and Soy Chocolate (1540–2012).'' Lafayette, CA: Soyinfo Center, 2012.
* Shurtleff, William; Aoyagi, Akiko. ''History of Soybean Crushing: [[Soy oil|Soy Oil]] and Soybean Meal (980-2016): Extensively Annotated Bibliography and Sourcebook.'' Lafayette, CA: Soyinfo Center, 2016.
* Shurtleff, William; Aoyagi, Akiko. ''History of Soybeans and Soyfoods in the Caribbean/West Indies (1767-2022)''. Lafayette, CA: Soyinfo Center, 2021.

==Further reading==
*{{cite book
 |last=Kauffman
 |first=Jonathan
 |author-link=Jonathan Kauffman
 |date=2018
 |title=Hippie Food: How Back-To-The-Landers, Longhair, and Revolutionaries Changed the Way We Eat
 |url=
 |location=
 |publisher=[[William Morrow and Company|William Morrow]]
 |page= <!-- or pages= -->
 |isbn=978-0062437303
}}
* {{cite book
 |last=Berry
 |first=Rynn
 |author-link=Rynn Berry
 |date=1995
 |title=Famous Vegetarians and Their Favorite Recipes: Lives and Lore from Buddha to the Beatles 
 |url=
 |location=
 |publisher=Pythagorean Publishers
 |page=
 |isbn=0962616915
}}

==References==
{{reflist|2}}

==External links==
*[https://www.facebook.com/mycellakiko/ Official Website]
*[https://www.thriftbooks.com/a/akiko-aoyagi/238472/ Books by Akiko Aoyagi]
*[https://www.motherearthnews.com/contributors/William+Shurtleff+And+Akiko+Aoyagi/ Articles by William Shurtleff And Akiko Aoyagi] - [[Mother Earth News]], May 1976-March 1979.

{{Soy}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Aoyagi, Akiko}}
[[Category:1950 births]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:20th-century American women artists]]
[[Category:American people of Japanese descent]]
[[Category:American artists of Japanese descent]]
[[Category:American cookbook writers]]
[[Category:American food writers]]
[[Category:Japanese emigrants to the United States]]
[[Category:Artists from Tokyo]]
[[Category:Writers from Tokyo]]
[[Category:Series of non-fiction books]]
[[Category:Soy researchers]]
[[Category:Vegetarian cookbook writers]]