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Yoko Ono an artist, first met her late husband John Lennon of the Beatles when he visited a preview of her exhibition at a gallery in London. The couple then began dating and collaborated on art, film, and musical projects until 1980 when a deranged fan shot him dead. After his death, Ono continued on with her art career, raising her children and honoring her husbands memory, by creating the “Lennon Ono Grant for Peace” prize in 2002.
Yoko Ono was born on February 18, 1933, in Tokyo, Japan. She was the eldest of three children born to Eisuke and Isoko, a wealthy aristocratic family. Her mother Isoko Yasuda Ono was the grand daughter of Zenijiro Yasudam who founded Yasuda Bank. Her father Eisuke was a banker and classical pianist.
Ono came into the world fatherless, as Eisuke at the time was working for the Yokohama Specie Bank, and he was transferred to San Francisco two weeks before her birth. Shortly after her birth, the family joined him in the US.
In 1937, Eisuke was again transferred back to Japan, where Ono was enrolled in the elite Peers School (formerly known as Gakushuin School) in Tokyo.
1940, and the family move back to the US settling this time in New York, and then again back to Japan in 1941, when her father was transferred to Hanoi on the eve of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour. Ono stayed in Tokyo through World War II and the firebombing in 1945. She spent her childhood in war torn Japan, where air raids were a frequent occurrence and she began studying piano almost as soon as she could walk. Young Ono showed an aptitude for music from a very early age, playing her first public concert at the age of four. As a child she attended the highly selective Jiyu-gakuen Music school in Japan, where many of the countries leading musical composers have studied. Here she learnt to sing classical opera, compose music and she formed a strong friendship with the Emperor Hirohito’s son, Yoshi.
In the early 1950’s and 18 years of age, the family moved to Scarsdale, New York where Ono studied at Sarah Lawrence College. Here she met Toshi Ichiyanagi a music student at leading music academy ‘Juillard’. They both dropped out of school in favor of eloping.
In 1960 together with her close friend La Monte Young, they began to stage a series of loft events on Chambers Street in Manhattan, which attracted the attention of leading members of New York’s avant-garde artistic community.
Ono’s newly found bohemian New York lifestyle caused a rift between her and her parents, so she broke away from the privileged lifestyle she was accustomed too. Life was hard financially at first for Ono. She took on many jobs, a waitress, a public school teacher and even a building manager, as a means to support her new lifestyle. Meanwhile her first marriage with Toshi broke down and they separated, so she returned to Japan to live with her parents in 1962.
Soon after Ono’s return, she became severely depressed and her parents then had her committed to a mental asylum. Her American friend Anthony Cox travelled to Japan to study calligraphy when he heard of what her parents did. He succeeded in securing her release and later that year, he became husband number two. Together they had a daughter Kyoko the following year, but this marriage was also doomed and ended in 1964.
She returned to New York with baby Kyoko and renewed her interest in performance art. She also sang at a jazz concert at the Royal Albert Hall with leading jazz saxophonist Omette Coleman.
She moved to London and it was here, she met husband number three musician John Lennon who attended a preview of one of her own art shows in November 1966. They were instantly attracted to each other and began dating immediately. However, fans of the famous Beatle were outraged at the union, and she soon adopted the nick name “Dragon Lady”.
Over the weeks, they discovered that they had a great deal in common. Lennon had been a keen art student before he became a musician, and still retained an interest in the avant garde art movement. Together they worked on musical and artistic projects. However Ono’s work on her own, wasn’t widely popular, and Lennon’s fans saw her as nothing more than a fake and charlatan. Most of her art pieces were white, she claimed this allowed the observers to imagine whatever colours they liked, she even had a painting titled “Blue Room”, which was actually white. Lennon’s fans were even more baffled when she began taking part in his controversial public events. Once appearing together dressed in black plastic bin-liners. It was intended to be a statement about the drawbacks of “judging by appearances”.
After Ono was in injured in a car accident, Lennon arranged for a king sized bed to be brought to the recording studio as he worked on the Beatles last recorded album “Abbey Road.
Lennon and Ono began public protests against the Vietnam War.
As soon as Ono’s divorce came through from Anthony Cox, they were married in the Spring of 1969 at the registry office in Gibraltar. The couple were never far from the public eye, and took advantage of the publicity surrounding their wedding to hold “Bed-in’s for Peace” in their hotel bedrooms in both Amsterdam and Montreal. It was the Montreal event which led Lennon to compose the hit single “Give Peace a Chance”.
The couples newfound happiness was about to take a huge turn, when Ono’s mentally unstable ex husband and the father of her daughter Kyoko, applied for full custody of the child on the basis that Ono had a psychiatric history, and her drug taking rendered her an unfit mother. He was awarded custody and then disappeared with Kyoko into a Christian fundamentalist community called “The Walk”. Twenty Five years would pass before the two would be re-united in 1998.
Soon after the wedding, Lennon and Ono set about releasing some albums, “Unfinished Music No 2: Life with the Lions”, “The Wedding Album”, and in 1970, both albums backed by Ono’s “Plastic Ono Band”.
Despite all his wealth and fame, Lennon was constantly battling threats of deportation with immigration authorities, which placed a huge strain on their marriage. As a result, Ono suffered a great deal of stress and suffered many miscarriages. They separated for 18 months and got back together in early 1975. Ono fell pregnant and in October that year she and Lennon welcomed the birth of a son, Sean Taro Ono Lennon, who shared the same birth date as his father.
Following Sean’ birth, Lennon decided to drop out of show business altogether, to devote his time to raising his son. In essence, he became a house husband, whilst Ono took care of family business affairs. Quietly on the side, Lennon began to work on a comeback album titled “Double Fantasy” which Ono also contributed too. It was released in 1980.
Tragedy was soon to strike when the happy couple had just finished recording the song “Walking on thin ice” for the follow up album to “Double Fantasy” when together they walked towards the entrance of their building and John turned when he heard someone call “Mr Lennon”. Standing before him was 25 year old Mark David Chapman. He placed the album that he had gotten autographed earlier on to a planter, and then when Lennon turned to move on, fired five shots from a gun into John Lennon’s back. Lennon staggered into the building saying “I’m shot”, and Yoko hysterically screamed for help. Two police vehicles arrived within minutes and one rushed Lennon to Roosevelt Hospital, but Lennon died in transit. Chapman made no attempt to flee the scene and was arrested standing next to the gun he dropped, reading a copy of “Catcher in the Rye”. Ono walked over to him as he was handcuffed and stared into his eyes. She said nothing, and walked away.
The world went into shock. Within minutes, crowd gathered outside the building. They brought flowers and candles and sang “Imagine”, “In my Life” and “Give Peace a Chance”. Two fans committed suicide after hearing the news.
Lennon 40 years of age, was cremated and this ashes returned to his wife.
Following Lennon’s tragic and untimely death, first Ono went into complete seclusion for an extended period. Ono found solace in her musical career and her art. When she finally re-surfaced, she expressed her grief in the release of her disturbing album “Season of Grass” in 1981. Over the years she resumed her former career as a visual artist and pursued a newfound hobby and interest in photography.
In 1995, she collaborated with her son and his band and recorded the album “Rising”, she also wrote a play titled “New York Rock”.
In 2005 she published and autobiography titled “Memories of John Lennon”.
Ono never married after Lennon, though their were rumors that she was romantically linked to Hungarian antiques dealer Sam Havadtoy and they split in 2001.
In 2011, 78 year old Ono secured a #1 on the US Billboard Dance chart with a remix of her song “Move on Fast”. This would mark her 8th #1 on the dance charts since 2000.
Also in 2011, Ono twittered that she felt numb about the news of the earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan, as it was not that long ago she visited Tokyo and was delighted at how beautiful and clean the city was.
If not for her music or art, one things for sure, Ono will be remembered as the key factor that broke up and destroyed one of the world’s greatest bands in the history of music.
Long live “The Beatles”, John, Paul, George and Ringo.
