• MAE YOSHIKAWA


    1/4 AMERICAN, 3/4 JAPANESE.
    1/4 EXPANSIVE THINKER, 3/4 MINIMALIST.


    English-Japanese speaker, bilingual/bicultural.
    Globe-trotter & native Tokyo-ite. 
    Home is where my heart feels free. 
    I don’t feel time, most of the time.

  • +AUTHOR


    3 BOOKS
    10 YEARS, YOGINI MAGAZINE COLUMNIST


    The pen is my sword, my mic, and my love.
    I always knew, but it took me 30 years to realize.

    New book on the Kizuki Journaling MAE Y method coming out in Japan on July 3rd, 2025 (Kawade Shobo Shinsha).

    Ashtanga Yoga Basics with Mae Yoshikawa (NHK, 2013) is my educational handbook on Ashtanga yoga, based on my two-part NHK TV series. Hadashi-no-mamade (Infas, 2010) collected my essays on living a modern, authentic yogic life. 

    Wrote a regular column on yoga lifestyle in Japanese Yogini magazine for 10 years—and loved connecting with my readers that way. 

    English books—Kizuki Journaling: The Key to Lasting Change and Kizuki: Realizations Beyond Time and Death
    —coming soon. 

  • +CREATOR


    1 KIZUKI JOURNALING MAE Y METHOD (SINCE 2021)
    50 FACILITATORS TRAINED
    2 MEMBERSHIP COMMUNITIES (GLOBAL/JAPAN)
    2 PODCASTS (EN/JP)


    Whether it was a massive earthquake that shook the country, a divorce that shook my life, or a loss that shattered me … it seems that every dark tunnel has inspired me to create—a bridge, a tool, a path forward, or a whole new self.

    A tunnel? Or a womb?

    The Kizuki Journaling MAE Y method, created in 2021, now has 50 certified facilitators worldwide, transforming countless lives. My two membership communities—one rooted in Japanese and a new one launching in English, fall 2025—offer safe spaces of co-resonance that connect and uplift people to rise to the next versions of themselves.

    KIZUKI the Podcast (English) and Getsuyoubi-no-Tsukiakari (Japanese), my two podcasts, are where my personal kizukis ("aha" moments) find their voice.

    I’m learning to alchemize life’s challenges and make the most out of them—out of love. Because I know what it feels like to feel lost and how powerful it is to find your way, I can’t help but keep creating and sharing.

  • +YOGI


    42 COVERS, YOGINI MAGAZINE 2003-2013
    10 YEARS, ADIDAS BRAND AMBASSADOR (SINCE 2015)
    1 YOGA JOURNAL PEOPLE’S AWARD BEST OF YOGINI 2016
    1st JAPANESE WOMAN TO BE AUTHORIZED BY SRI K. PATTABHI JOIS
    170+ ATA YOGA INSTRUCTORS TRAINED


    Too many Big Questions early on in life made me sick. Sickness led me to yoga. Yoga gave me a spine ... to my posture and to my quest. India called me. She took me in like a long-lost mother and taught me timeless stillness in meditation. It’s a state where I am comfortable with the unknowingness of becoming. I am at home there.

    As the first & only Japanese woman to be authorized by the late founder of Ashtanga yoga Sri K. Pattabhi Jois and as adidas Training Academy (aTA) Japan Director of Yoga, my passion is to distill and deliver the essence of tradition to modern lives.

  • +MOTHER


    2 BOYS
    LOVE= IMMEASURABLE.


    Still, the thing that I love most, and think I am best at, is being a mom. I gave birth to both naturally, the second in the bathtub at home. 

    May they grow up watching me live to my fullest potential—and know they never have to earn or prove their worth. 

    May they think big, dream bigger, and smile EVEN bigger.

    May they see Integrity embodied in me, ever-boldly redefining what that looks like in daily life. Because evolution is our nature, and Joy is my guide ... as it is theirs ... and yours. 

BLOG

  • THE HEAVENLY HARD-HATS

    THE HEAVENLY HARD-HATS

    They say in Japan, “The guest is a god.” But what if the construction workers banging around outside your apartment are gods too? A playful moment of perception-shifting turns a...

    THE HEAVENLY HARD-HATS

    They say in Japan, “The guest is a god.” But what if the construction workers banging around outside your apartment are gods too? A playful moment of perception-shifting turns a...

  • SURRENDER IS A DEATH—AND I JUST DIED AGAIN

    SURRENDER IS A DEATH—AND I JUST DIED AGAIN

    There’s a spiritual whistle note people love to hit: Just surrender to the universe. Except, I think most people, including me, might have been a bit deluded about hitting that...

    SURRENDER IS A DEATH—AND I JUST DIED AGAIN

    There’s a spiritual whistle note people love to hit: Just surrender to the universe. Except, I think most people, including me, might have been a bit deluded about hitting that...

  • WHAT I'M MOST PROUD OF

    WHAT I'M MOST PROUD OF

    People see the accolades first. They see 42 consecutive issues on the cover of Yogini Magazine and have followed the column I continued to write for ten years.  They see...

    WHAT I'M MOST PROUD OF

    People see the accolades first. They see 42 consecutive issues on the cover of Yogini Magazine and have followed the column I continued to write for ten years.  They see...

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MAE photo by Yuki Yamada
+AUTHOR, +YOGI photos by Yoshihito Ozawa for Yogini Magazine
+CREATOR photo by Takamasa Aoki
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