[1][full citation needed] Ayako Tsuru was born in Mexico City on October 23, 1941.
Her parents were Mihoko Kayaba and Dr.Kiso Tsuru, a prominent Japanese doctor who lived in Mexico from the early 1930s.
Since Tsuru was born during World War II her parents were concerned about the family and her health so they sent her to Dr. Tsuru's ranch in Ciudad Valles, San Luis Potosi where she went to school and was kept safe during the war years.
[2][full citation needed] Her major teachers were Armando Lopez Carmona and David Alfaro Siqueiros, from whom she would get special talks on the subject by the mural art.
[3][full citation needed] She then became a teacher of vitreous enamels at the National Museum of Cultures in Mexico City.