Mariko Mitsuyu was born in Osaka, Japan, began to play the piano at 5.
She studied Medicine at the Kyoto University and was an ophthalmologist. In 1981, she came to Germany as an Alexander von Humboldt scholar. She did the electrophysiological research in the field of ophthalmology at the Max-Planck- Institute in Bad Nauheim, near Frankfurt.
1983-1988 she studied piano at the music academy in Frankfurt and became a pianist. She got a teaching contract at the music academy.
In 1994, she moved to Leipzig and taught at the music academy Leipzig, where she got the honorable professorship in 2001.

(Mariko Mitsuyu is known in Japan as Mariko Tsuboi)