Yoko Ono

Background

Yoko Ono was born in Tokyo City to Isoko Ono and Eisuke Ono, a rich banker, and former classical pianist. Her father was sent to San Francisco two weeks before her birth and thus was unable to meet her until the family relocated to the United States in 1935. In 1937, the family moved to Japan, where she enrolled in the Gakushūin School. The family moved to New York City in 1940, then back to Hanoi the following year, when she attended Keimei Gakuen primary school. She moved to Scarsdale, New York, with her family in 1951 and enrolled at Sarah Lawrence College, but dropped out in 1956.

Her loft events on Chamber Streets drew the attention of major avant-garde artists in New York, earning her the opportunity to collaborate with musicians such as Karl-Heinz Stockhausen, George Maciunas, and Nam June Paik. After her first marriage ended in divorce, she moved to Tokyo to live with her parents, where she met American jazz musician and filmmaker Anthony Cox before returning to New York. In Tokyo, she performed her first seminal concept art piece, “Cut Piece,” which was well-received. She reprised her exploits in Manhattan and London in 1965 and 1966, causing a sensation in the art world. In 1966, she created the creative ad video “Bottoms,” after 365 friends and volunteers agreed to have their nude buttocks photographed as part of a performance art project. At the preview of her art exhibition in London in 1966, she met John Lennon, with whom she collaborated on various musical and artistic endeavors. In 1969, they founded their band, Plastic Ono Band, and released their first live album, “Live Peace in Toronto 1969.” A year later, Ono released her first studio album, “Yoko Ono/Plastic Ono Band,” which peaked at 182 on the Billboard 200. In 1971, she released the double album “Fly,” followed by the protest album “Some Time in New York City,” in 1972. She released two solo albums the next year, “Feeling the Space” and “Approximately Infinite Universe.” Following her husband’s death, she recorded a mournful and bereaved solo album, “Season of Glass,” in 1981, followed by an optimistic album, “It’s Alright (I See Rainbows),” in 1982. In the years thereafter, she released several albums, including “Every Man Has a Woman,” “Milk and Honey,” and “Starpeace,” before returning to visual and performance art. In 1994, she made her off-Broadway debut with her musical “New York Rock.” Following this, Rykodisc Records reissued her solo records on C.D. in 1997. She returned to music in the 2000s, releasing albums such as “Blueprint for a Sunrise,” “Walking on Thin Ice (Remixes),” “’Yes, I’m a Witch,” “Between My Head and the Sky,” and “Yokokimthurston,” all of which became top hits. “Memories of John Lennon,” her memoirs, was published in 2005.

In 1956, she married Toshi Ichiyanagi. Unfortunately, the marriage was short-lived, and the couple divorced in 1962, after which she was briefly taken to a psychiatric hospital for serious depression. Anthony Cox, whom she married in June 1963, helped her get out of the psychiatric hospital. Kyoko Chan Cox was born in August 1963 to the couple. This marriage, too, failed, and they divorced in 1969. Her third marriage to John Lennon, the founding member of The Beatles rock band, ended in a succession of break-ups and patch-ups after he became associated with his assistant, May Pang, in March 1969. In October 1975, the couple gave birth to a son, Sean Taro Ono Lennon. The relationship came to an end after John Lennon was assassinated in December 1980. She was said to have had a romantic relationship with Sam Havadtoy, a Hungarian antique dealer, which ended in 2001. Sean Lennon, her son, is a popular musician and songwriter who released the album “Rising” with her in 1995 as part of his band Ima Rising. In 2008, he created a new band called The Ghost of a Saber-Tooth Tiger.