Nobu (Nobuko) Yoshino was born in Tokyo or Sendai as the eldest daughter of Tama Abe and Sakuzo Yoshino, a professor at the Faculty of Law, Tokyo Imperial University known as the theoretical mentor of the Taisho Democracy movement. Her given name was Nobu, but in those days it was common for women to add ‘ko’ at the end of their names, so she was also called Nobuko. After graduating from Seishi Elementary School in Hongo and the Girls’ High School affiliated with the Tokyo Women’s Normal School, she studied French at the Athénée Français. At the age of 21, she met Kameki Tsuchiura (1897–1996), a student at the Faculty of Architecture, Tokyo Imperial University, and they married in 1922. Kameki sparked Nobuko’s interest in architecture, and in April 1923, she moved to Los Angeles with her husband, where he started working at Frank Lloyd Wright’s office.
When the Tsuchiuras moved to the United States, Wright had a residence in West Hollywood that he used as a studio and staff quarters. Under the guidance of William Smith, an employee at Wright’s office, Nobuko began her studies by tracing drawings and subsequently completed a two-year correspondence course in architectural design and drafting in the United States.

In the early spring of 1924, the Tsuchiuras and Smith moved to Taliesin, a vast estate in Wisconsin that included Wright’s home, studio and farm, and spent a year and a half there. Nobuko spent her time at Wright’s studio, colouring his perspective drawings while also helping him organise his collections of ukiyo-e (Japanese woodblock prints) and antique art. Wright liked to take Nobuko out in her kimono. Despite her petite stature, Nobuko had a strong presence, and Wright trusted her, affectionately calling her ‘Big Little Nobu’.
In April 1925, a fire at Taliesin destroyed Wright’s living quarters, and the couple helped rebuild them. In October, they left Taliesin and moved to Chicago, and in November, they drove across the continent to return home.

After returning to Japan in January 1926, Kameki immediately found employment at Okura Doboku (now Taisei Corporation). At the same time, Kameki was also designing houses in his own right at home, and Nobuko assisted him. Some of these houses were clearly co-designed with Nobuko, such as Yatsui House (1929/30), Owaki House (1930) and their own Tsuchiura House in Gotanda (1931).
Among the works designed by Nobuko alone is a proposal that won the Class A Silver Prize in Asahi Graph’s ‘Small Houses for a New Era’ design competition (1929). The full-scale model house was constructed on the grounds of the Asahi Jutaku Exhibition in Seijo Gakuen as the Asahi Jutaku Type 7 model. Nobuko was also featured in women’s magazines and newspapers, for example in a 1929 newspaper article entitled ‘Cool House: A Cultural Residence with Large Windows, Designed by Nobuko Tsuchiura’. Nobuko’s argument for detached houses included 1) efficient use of space, 2) efficient living, 3) hygiene and 4) comprehensive heating and cooling systems.
Tsuchiura House in Kamiosaki (1935) is a wooden house built using a dry construction method that combines interpenetrating spaces reminiscent of Wright’s Imperial Hotel with the functionality of European modernist architecture. The exterior adopts the International Style, while the building also incorporates regional characteristics, such as small eaves over the windows, tailored to the Japanese climate. This house was also co-designed by Kameki and Nobuko, and newspaper articles at the time described Nobuko Tsuchiura as “taking a step forward as a female architect” and noted that she had become a “distinguished engineer who would work alongside her husband in the architectural world”. The couple’s own residence was designated as a Tokyo Metropolitan Tangible Cultural Property in 1995 and was relocated to Aoyama and restored in 2024.

In December 1934, Kameki established the Tsuchiura Kameki Architectural Office. Nobuko was in charge of interior design, but it was extremely difficult for women to break into the male-dominated world of architecture. She left the field in 1937 and joined the Ladies’ Photo Club, organised by photographer Kozo Nojima (1889–1964). The photographic anthology Nekka Iseki (Sagami Shobo, 1937), featuring photographs from a trip to north-eastern China, includes Nobuko’s works, along with those of Hideto Kishida (1899–1966) and Kameki.
After World War II, Nobuko never returned to architecture, spending her life creating abstract paintings well into her 90s. She exhibited her work every year at the Shojukai Exhibition, organised by her mentor Masaki Suematsu (1908–1997), and held six solo exhibitions between 1969 and 1993.