Born in Tokyo, Ririko received intensive and continuous musical training in piano performance and music theory from early on at Toho-Gakuen School of Music.  Admitted to its special program for gifted children and later on to its high school and college divisions, she earned a Bachelor of Arts degree.  She pursued her graduate studies at Indiana University and received a Master of Music degree and an Artist Diploma with high distinction.  At Indiana, she studied piano and chamber music with several artist teachers, such as Gyorgy Sebok, Menahem Pressler, Shigeo Neriki, Alfonso Montecino, and Michel Block.  Under three different programs; Artist diploma, Master, and Doctor, she performed numerous solo/chamber recitals and concertos, including the Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto no.3.  She won the Rachmaninoff 3rd Piano Concerto competition in 1988.  She also taught piano there from 1980 to 1986 as an Associate Instructor.

Since joining Illinois Wesleyan University as adjunct faculty in 1991, she has taught piano, accompanied recitals and competitions, and performed solo and chamber concerts with colleagues on a regular basis.  Her performing activities as a soloist and collaborative pianist have frequently been extended to other universities and communities in the area, as well as to major cities in the United States and abroad including Canada, Japan, and Europe.  She has a special affinity with composers such as Rachmaninoff and Ravel.  She has given lecture recitals on works of these composers in Japan, and her last solo recital in Tokyo which included Ravel’s Gaspard de la Nuit and La Valse in the second half of the program, won critical acclaim in “Musica Nova”, the major musical journal for pianists in Japan.  She has collaborated with numerous artists including Roger Roloff, baritone, John Bruce Yeh and Lawrie Bloom, clarinetists, with the Chicago Symphony.

In summer months, she often teaches piano and performs concerts in Japan.  She also maintains her own private piano studio in Bloomington to help promote the love for music for amateur musicians of all ages.  For the past decade, she has served as a judge for the annual scholarship auditions for the Orpheus Club, a local affiliate of the National Federation of Music Club (NFMC) and the Illinois Federation of Music Club (IFMC).  She is also a lifetime member in the Beethoven Society for Pianists, which has chapters throughout the world.