is an American academic. She is a professor of American Studies at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, and specializes in American cultural history and US-Asian relations. She is also an amateur pianist.
Biography Yoshihara was born in New York City and grew up in Tokyo. She attended high school in Yokohama and graduated from the University of Tokyo before earning a master's degree and doctorate from Brown University. Yoshihara has taught at the University of Hawai'i at Mānoa since 1997 and served as chief editor of the journal American Quarterly from 2014 to 2024.
She played the piano since the age of three, but took a break from playing while in graduate school. As an adult, she has entered competitions like the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition as an amateur, and won in the 2014 Aloha International Piano Festival's amateur division.
Since 2024, Yoshihara has also assumed a position as Professor at the Center for Global Education at the University of Tokyo, and splits her time between Hawaiʻi and Japan.
Selected bibliography
Yoshihara, Mari (2019). Dearest Lenny: Letters from Japan and the Making of the World Maestro. New York: Oxford University Press.
References
External links mariyoshihara.com - Yoshihara's personal website "Obbligato with Mari Yoshihara"; Discussion of Asian Americans in classical music on KPFA-FM's APEX Express program (Sept. 4, 2025): 1 hour Audio / Transcript