About Aki Sugihara's Background - an excerpt from Chapter 20 of “Page of Swords & The High Priestess" -

In the fall of 2005, Yukiko Shimada and her husband, Masato Shiraishi, began reading “A Course In Miracles.” But Yukiko struggled with the difficulty of the concepts covered in the book.

One snowy January day in 2006, Yukiko stopped by "Central Park" on a shopping trip. Yukiko was snatched by a thief from her PVC “MARNI” bag containing “A Course In Miracles” there. At that time, a woman who ran over the piled-up snow like a ninja, which was supposed to be difficult to walk on, with the grace and lightning speed, caught up with the thief in a flash, kicked him down with an upper roundhouse kick, and got back Yukiko's “MARNI” bag. She was Aki Sugihara.

Aki Sugihara was born on October 23, 1976 in Kobe City, Hyogo Prefecture. Her father runs a building contractor. She has an older brother 2 years older and a younger brother 3 years younger. Her father was an avid fan of professional wrestler Antonio Inoki, known as “Moeru Toukon (Fighting Spirit),” and she grew up watching wrestling matches on TV from a young age.

In the summer of 1982, her father took the children to see “Rocky III” because Hulk Hogan, a star wrestler belonging to the WWF, was in the film. Watching Hulk Hogan on the big screen was a powerful experience, and Aki was very excited.

So, she began to want to watch movies that had a reputation for their fight scenes. In the winter of that year, she became a huge fan of Li Lianjie, the lead actor, after watching "The Shaolin Temple". She fell in love with him! Li Lianjie is the future Jet Li.

Aki's passion for martial arts was ignited. In April 1985, Aki finally began attending the Sannomiya Dojo to learn Kyokushin, a full-contact style of karate founded by Mas Oyama. Willie Williams, a Kyokushin karateka nicknamed “Bear Killer,” fought Antonio Inoki to a draw on February 27, 1980. So, Aki's father, who recognized Kyokushin's strength, was very happy that Aki was learning Kyokushin.

In April 1989, Aki entered Shukugawa Gakuin Junior and Senior High School, where she trained in the prestigious karate club. However, she was greatly perplexed by the fact that it was not a full-contact style of karate like “Kyokushin” karate.

On March 5, 1993, Aki went with her first boyfriend, a Sannomiya Dojo colleague, to watch a match sponsored by the "Fighting Network Rings" mixed martial arts organization. She watched a 30-minute one-game match between Volk Han and Andrei Kopylov, both Russian Sambo greats.

Aki was so struck by Volk Han's 8:30 minute “Ashi-Hishigi/Achilles lock” victory that she forgot that her boyfriend was sitting next to her, and decided to learn other fighting techniques besides “Striking”. Naturally, Aki quickly broke up with her boyfriend, LOL. Aki decided to move to Tokyo to do so, and decided to apply to Nippon Sport Science University (Nippon taiiku daigaku).

In 1995, shortly after losing several close friends in the city where she grew up due to the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake, she took the Nippon Sport Science University entrance exam as she had hoped, was accepted, and entered the Faculty of Sport Science /Department of Martial Arts.

Aki was exposed to various martial arts through classes, university club activities, and various gyms outside the university, but due to the change in her view of life and death brought about by the earthquake, she was more attracted to the Spiritual aspect of martial arts than the technical aspect. In particular, Aki's participation in the "Nittai Vale Tudo Study Group", an on-campus club established in response to Rickson Gracie's popularity, brought her an important encounter. It was there that she met and began dating her boyfriend, who was a meditation practitioner. Aki borrowed Paramahansa Yogananda's “Autobiography of a Yogi” from him and read it, which was a significant turning point.

This book sparked Aki's rapidly growing interest in Spirituality, and she began to gather information to learn Yoga. She found the “MAHA YOGI ASHRAM NIPPORI” by the Japanese master Svāmī Nāradānanda, and without hesitation, she joined and began practicing “Rāja Yoga".

Aki converted to vegetarianism at that time.

Aki was, at any rate, an avid practitioner of Yoga, and she began with “Bhagavad Gita,” followed by “Yoga Sutras of Patanjali,” “Hatha Yoga Pradipika,” “Gheranda Samhita,” “Shiva Samhita,” “Upanishads,” Adi Shankara's “Upadeśasāhasrī” and books on Ramana Maharshi, “The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna” and other books on Hinduism and Yoga philosophy.

So, naturally, she quickly broke up with her boyfriend, LOL.

And just as her teacher Svāmī Nāradānanda had done in the past, Aki also began to think about practicing Yoga in India. The destination was Kolkata. Aki learned English conversation through books, CDs, and radio programs so that she would not have trouble in a foreign country, and she also joined a university club to reinforce her learning. And as for the all-important Bengali language, she learned it with her fellow students at "MAHA YOGI ASHRAM NIPPORI".

After graduating from Nippon Sport Science University in March 1999, Aki went to Kolkata, as she had hoped, to further her studies in “Advaita Vedanta”. Although she could not enter the “Ramakrishna Math” of her dreams because it was a male monastic organization, she studied with Mātā Saccidānanda Rukmiṇī, an eminent and enlightened Yogini in the lineage of Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, as her Guru.

Of course, Aki did not walk all over Kolkata to find this wonderful teacher on her own; Svāmī Nāradānanda wrote her a letter of introduction.

However, in 2001, during her training in Kolkata, the September 11 attacks occurred. Aki saw a picture of Ground Zero in New York City. This coincided with the scene in Kobe right after the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake, and Aki felt the desire to pray in New York.

Aki apologized to Guru Mātā Saccidānanda Rukmiṇī and went to the US in early 2002. Fortunately, her Guru in Japan, Svāmī Nāradānanda, had a U.S. office, MAHA YOGI ASHRAM NYC, in New York, where she continued her Yoga practice, and also found a job as a martial arts instructor through a friend. She also took on the responsibility of giving “Hatha yoga” lessons in private homes.

About six months after arriving in New York, Aki learned about “A Course In Miracles” from James “Ānanda” McNally, one of the students at "MAHA YOGI ASHRAM NYC". James “Ānanda” McNally told Aki that:

Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa learned from both Christianity and Islam. He exchanged ideas with the infidels. So, we today should also learn from New Age philosophies like “A Course In Miracles”.

Aki was greatly intrigued by “A Course In Miracles,” and after listening to James “Ānanda” McNally's commentary, Aki immediately realized that it had common ground with “Advaita Vedanta". Aki immediately bought “A COURSE IN MIRACLES COMBINED VOLUME". She also began attending small prayer meetings that James “Ānanda” McNally often attended. It is called the "Forgiveness Prayer Group", hosted by Reiki healer Mystic Merlin.

After this, Yukiko Shimada and her husband, Masato Shiraishi, became friends with Aki Sugihara. Eventually, they left New York and returned to Japan after the Great East Japan Earthquake of March 11, 2011, and built the spiritual community salon “CHOPPED TOMATO PURĒE” in Kobe as a place to spread “A Course In Miracles”.

The story that follows this is the one told in my first screenplay, "The Holy Spirit in Ultramarine".

For more information about the spiritual community salon “CHOPPED TOMATO PURĒE”, please check my two posts below. I do not just want to do filmmaking.