She was born in the 43rd year of the Meiji (era) in Tsukiji, a district of Chūō, Tokyo, as the oldest daughter of Zengoro Yamawaki, a Urasenke tea ceremony master.

Senda, a politically active socialist, was involved with underground theatre in Berlin, and with the Japanese artistic community in the city, which he introduced the Yamawakis to.

Michiko was the eldest daughter of Zengorō Yamawaki, a businessman from an Osaka sake brewing family, who was a major owner of land in the Tsukiji area of Tokyo.

Scholars of Michiko's life and career note that a penchant for modern and fashionable things in her childhood may have given her a special sensitivity towards the Japanese quality she later encountered at the Bauhaus.

Although Michiko claimed in her book Bauhausu to Chanoyu (Bauhaus and Tea Ceremony) that she had no interest in design prior to meeting Iwao, her life and sense of taste were formed by her family’s refined home and her father’s tea ceremony practice, which later resonated with her experience of the Bauhaus and the modern art she encountered in Germany.

[6] Michiko's father, who spoke German and was aware of cutting-edge artistic production in Germany, supported the idea and used his finances to turn the Yamawakis' study trip into a fuller professional experience.

They spent two months in New York City, where Michiko bought new clothes and had her hair cut in order to arrive at the Bauhaus as a modern girl.

Senda, together with the painter Osuke Shimazaki, lacquer artist Kotaro Fukuoka, photographer Hiroshi Yoshizawa and the Yamawakis founded a design studio, Tomoe, to support their modest living in Berlin.

[9] In November 1922 Japanese art critic Sadanosuke Nakada and architect Kikuji Ishimoto visited the Bauhaus in Weimar, to meet with Wassily Kandinsky, who had invited them there.

On their return to Japan, Ishimoto and Nakada wrote about the school, expressing their enthusiasm for the workshops, products, and artists through their art magazine Mizue in 1925.

Specifically, Mizutani had received an architecture scholarship from the Japanese Ministry of Culture to study at a forward-thinking university in Germany, and later apply this knowledge in his teaching in Japan.

She began her studies with Vorkurs, or preliminary courses, which included modules on materials, abstract composition and design, as well as mathematics, physics, and gymnastics.

She gratefully notes that Wassily Kandinsky was kind enough to give them special time after lessons and explained difficult or important parts of his lectures in English.

The February 1931 edition was an “Oriental Night” for which Michiko “learned a traditional Japanese dance… which she performed, dressed in a kimono" while Iwao built the stage set.

[18] In Tokyo, the Yamawakis joined circles promoting a modern and Euro-American lifestyle, and lectured widely in both formal and informal settings, such as, in the latter case, Sadanoksuke Nakada's apartment.

Michiko's father Zengorō rented a modern apartment for the young couple in the Tokuda Building in Ginza, which had just been completed to a design by Kameki Tsuchiura.

[20] As Michiko and Iwao began teaching in Japan, their creative practices leveraged their elite status of iconic moboga and attempted to connect and fuse Japanese tradition with the avant-garde they experienced in Berlin.

Michiko wrote in her book that although most of the time, as an iconic moga, she wore a European style outfit, she chose to wear a kimono with a wisteria design for the exhibition opening.

From 1934 Michiko again used the portable loom when she started teaching textile design at the Jiyu gakūen school, run by progressive women's educator and publisher Hani Motoko.

The textile piece was very large, 150 x 300 cm, and she noted that she received help with the work from Bruno Taut's beloved student Tokugen Mihara, and one more assistant.

The large living room was furnished with pieces Michiko and Iwao imported from Germany, including the famous Wassily steel tube chairs.

Beneath the glamorous modern image of the couple, Iwao remained, Michiko thought, a very traditional Japanese husband.