Takako Yamaguchi was born in 1952, in Okayama, Japan. During the early 1970s, she attended International Christian University, Tokyo, Japan. She received a BA from Bates College in Lewiston, Maine in 1975. She attended the Rhode Island School of Design, under a Presidential Fellowship, in 1975-1976, and received a Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of California at Santa Barbara in 1978.

Her painting style can be compared to the monumental seascapes of nineteenth century European romanticism. Yamaguchi's paintings are at least equally influenced by the fabric design of kimonos from her native Japan, where boldly abstract patterns and delicate representations of nature are playfully juxtaposed.