Music, Dance, and Zen: The Remarkable Journey of Yoshi Akiba
You must first walk a long path of stepping stones to reach the Rockridge home of Yoshi Akiba and Rev. Gengo Akiba. And that is deliberate.
It’s a Japanese tradition that when approaching a natural setting, very often a garden, you should slow down and pay attention to where you are going. The idea is to leave your everyday experiences behind and prepare mentally for what’s to come.
At the Akiba’s, that could be a Japanese tea ceremony in their garden or home, a Zen Buddhist service in their adjacent temple, or a squirrel named Kucha who appears to live on their front porch and communicates with Yoshi by waving his tail. Is he a pet? “He thinks so,” Yoshi responds.
Of course, you’ve most likely heard of Yoshi Akiba, primarily through the iconic music venue and restaurant known as Yoshi’s, located for 28 years across from Jack London Square. But it is her hard work, persistence, and artistry that really define her.
“I started from nothing,” she said, as she talked about growing up in a small private Japanese orphanage after her parents died during World War II. There, she met and married a U.S. Naval Officer. They traveled to Baltimore by ship in 1961 where she began dance studies at the Peabody Music Conservatory — a preparatory school now affiliated with Johns Hopkins University.
Finding an Inspired Life in the Beauty of Community
“I’m happiest when I am dancing,” Yoshi said. Indeed, after divorcing and moving to Berkeley in the late ’60s, she earned a Bachelor of Arts in Fine Arts from UC-Berkeley (1975) and, four years later, earned master’s degrees in dance therapy and dance performance from Mills College. Her wide-ranging dance practice centers around jazz, modern, and ballet. “I mix everything,” she said.
While still an undergraduate, Yoshi and two friends opened the original Yoshi’s, a small Japanese restaurant near the Berkeley campus, in 1973. It wasn’t enough for her to just serve food, so she added music. “I had to feed myself.”
Looking to expand, they found a space on Oakland’s Claremont Avenue, and opened Yoshi’s Restaurant and Jazz Club in 1977. “I didn’t know how to advertise,” she said. So, she offered free food for four days, and word spread. “It was a cultural center. We did many things.” A favorite memory was presenting a dance featuring “beautiful Japanese girls in their kimonos.” The audience was shocked, she said, when the dancers took off their kimonos to reveal “very sexy” western dance apparel. “They (the audience) just loved it.”
In the attic above the club, they opened a small Zen meditation hall and tearoom. And that’s how she met Akiba, a Buddhist bishop, who came to dedicate the space. They married in 1988.
The need for a bigger venue, and resident complaints of the often-late-night music, prompted the move to Jack London Square in 1997. But first, Yoshi said, she had to allay the fears of Black community representatives who worried that the proposed restaurant and jazz club would negatively impact their neighborhood.
“I met with them, and we made a deal,” she said. As part of it, “I gave them free dinners for each of them and their families for a year. And they said ‘okay.’” Since then, Yoshi helped found the nonprofit 51Oakland to bring music and art to underserved Oakland public schools (now known as Elevate Oakland).
“Yoshi is all spirit,” said Jason Hofmann, a Rockridge neighbor, close friend, and a co-founder of Elevate Oakland. “She has built Yoshi’s into one of the most important institutions in the Bay Area.” In spite of how hard it is to create and maintain a music venue, he said, “Yoshi’s has music every night. She’s an incredible inspiration.”
Pancho Sanchez, Yoshi said, was the first big name to perform at the expanded Yoshi’s. Although famous as a jazz haven, the 500 or so shows booked each year also include top R&B, Soul, Comedy, and Rock artists.
Home is Where Your Temple Is
Yoshi and Akiba live in the heart of Rockridge on a property they bought at auction in 1990, outbidding an apartment developer. They added a front porch and filled the existing home with their collections of Japanese books and writing boxes, ceramic dolls and figurines, paintings, photography, and sculpture from around the world. “Zen people travel a lot,” she said. They also brought in Japanese carpenters and wood to build the adjacent Kojin — a Buddhist Temple, where Akiba leads public services on Sunday mornings.
“He and I are busy,” she said. The two, now in their early 80s, often walk to Highwire for coffee. “It’s our exercise.” They also literally run around their property to keep in shape. “He’s an amazing guy,” Yoshi said of Akiba. “He has to know a lot, and answer any kind of questions. He’s really knowledgeable and loves to read. I want him to stay healthy. If you keep studying, you don’t get old.”
She still dances, recently performing at the Japanese New Year’s Eve celebration held at San Francisco’s Asian Art Museum. But another teacher now leads the Osmotesenke School of Tea Ceremonies lessons she once taught, still offered in a special room in their home.
“I like the people most of all,” Yoshi said of living in Rockridge. “I feel safe here.” Her favorite Japanese restaurant, Mitama, is just over the Berkeley border. Becky’s is her pick for Chinese food. And, although “I don’t go that often anymore” to the restaurant and jazz club she founded, she knows its impact: “I think Yoshi’s makes Oakland so much better.”
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