The following biography comes from the Kushi Family and was presented at Aveline's Memorial Service.

A Celebration of Her Life

July 9, 2001

Aveline Tomoko Kushi

was born in the small town of Yokota in the Izumo area in Japan, she studied teaching in college, and during World War II, she taught elementary school in her mountain district. Disillusioned with the devastation following the war, she quit teaching and moved to Tokyo to become involved in world peace activities at the student World Government Association, run by George Ohsawa. She came to the United States in 1951 to attend a World Federalists Convention, and met her future husband, Michio Kushi, who was also a student of George Ohsawa. This was to be a turning point in her life, after which she and her husband devoted to the achievement of world peace through the spread of the macrobiotic way of healthy living through education.

Aveline Kushi lived in New York and Boston, and inspired many thousands of people who have visited, lived with her, studied and sought her advice. Soon after moving to the Boston area, she recognized the need to make natural, organic-quality foods more widely available, and in 1966 opened the first natural foods store in the United States. This store, named Erewhon, grew into the leading natural and organic foods distributor, with retail stores in the Boston area, Hartford and Los Angeles. Through this company, she inspired the development of the organic foods industry by encouraging farmers to produce gains and beans using organic methods, and by providing a market for their crops. She and her husband also owned several natural foods restaurants over the years, including Sanae and the Seventh Inn in Boston, and Open Sesame in Brookline.

Aveline Kushi was a co-founder of the East West Foundation, One Peaceful World, and the Kushi Foundation/Kushi Institute. organizations devoted to the improvement of human health and societal well-being. She authored an autobiography, children's books and numerous cookbooks, including "Aveline Kushi's Complete Guide to Macrobiotic Cooking," and has taught macrobiotics at seminars throughout the world. Her classes were seminal introductions to the Western palate of traditional Japanese foods such as miso, tofu, umeboshi, and sea vegetables.

Her cooking classes and natural foods businesses were catalysts to the development of related foods companies involved in the manufacture of foods such as high-quality, organic sourdough bread, and soyfoods such as tofu, tempeh, natto, and miso. Her students and colleagues started companies such as Bread and Circus, Eden Foods, and Imagine Foods. Aveline Kushi also introduced the use of traditional medicinal cooking for various disorders, thus contributing directly to the growth and interest in complementary and alternative healing practices. Macrobiotics is today widely recognized as a leading comprehensive lifestyle approach to the management of cancer and heart disease.

Recognizing the appreciation of different cultures as an integral part of promoting world peace, Aveline Kushi promoted East-West cultural exchange, and introduced U.S. and European audiences to Tea Ceremony, Noh Dance performance, futon making, calligraphy, and flower arrangement. Her students were inspired to start the first futon manufacturing companies in the U.S. Aveline Kushi and her husband also started several publications, including the East-West Journal (now Natural Health) in 1971, which also inspired similar publications such as the New Age Journal.

Aveline and Michio Kushi's accomplishments were recognized by the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History with the establishment in 1999 of the Kushi Family Collection of materials related to their work.

Aveline passed away after a nine-year long experience with cancer of the cervix and its complications. She was 78.

She leaves her husband, Michio Kushi, four sons, Norio of North Carolina, Lawrence of New York, Phiya of Massachusetts, and Hisao of California; four sisters and three brothers; 13 grandchildren, and 19 nieces and nephews. (L.H.K.)

The Kushi Family asks that in lieu of flowers, please send donations to:
Aveline Kushi Memorial Fund
P.O. Box 7
198 Leland Road
Becket, Massachusetts 01223
413-623-5741