Mayumi Fujikawa's earliest training began with her father, a self-taught violinist, at the age of 3. At sixteen she attended the Toho Conservatoire in Tokyo studying with the Hideo Saito, Kenji Kobayashi & Tomoyasu Soh. A scholarship from the Alex de Vries Foundation enabled her to work with Franz Wigy, a pupil of Ysaye, at the Flemish National Music Institute in Belgium. She later studied briefly with Leonid Kogan prior to her Grand Prix Vieuxtemps and her spectacular success in the 1970 Tchaikovsky Competition, where she was described by David Oistrach as "the revelation of the competition".