Yoko Ono Research Paper

Angela Huang

Music 375

March 27, 2014

Yoko Ono

Yoko Ono was John Lennon’s second wife after Cynthia Lennon. Ono was born into a wealthy aristocratic family in Tokyo on February 18, 1933. As a child, Yoko spent the majority of her childhood studying music in war-torn Japan during World War II. Yoko began playing piano at a very young age and had her first concert when she was four years old and studied at the Jiyu-gakuen Music School in Japan to expand her talents in composition, classical opera, and German Lieder.

Yoko and her family moved to New York City in the early 1950s where Yoko met her first husband, Toshi Ichiyanagi, a music student at Juillard. During this time, Yoko began experimenting with new approaches to performance art and her new lifestyle did not sit well with her parents. To financially support herself without her parent’s help, she worked multiple jobs as a waitress, a teacher, and an apartment building manager. In 1962, Yoko’s marriage with Ichiyanagi ended and Yoko returned to her parents in Japan.

In that same year, Yoko met her second husband, Anthony Cox whom traveled with Yoko back to Japan to study calligraphy. Upon her return to Japan, Yoko became clinically depressed and her parents sent her to a mental asylum. However, Anthony Cox was able to get Yoko released from the mental asylum and the pair married shortly after in 1962. Yoko gave birth to her daughter, Kyoko, in 1963, and divorced Anthony that same year. After the divorce, Yoko returned to New York once again to put her interests back into performance art.

In November 1966, Yoko met John Lennon, who would become her third and last husband, in London at the preview of her own art show. There was an instant attraction between John and Yoko a...

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...om fans all over the world. On October 9, 1975, Sean Taro Ono Lennon was born after Ono taking every precaution to secure that baby by putting her work on hold and spending the majority of her pregnancy on bed rest.

After the birth of Sean, Lennon retired from the business altogether to focus on his new role as a father. Lennon spent the majority of his time at home with his son while his wife took care of the financial aspects of their household. In 1980, Lennon released a comeback album, ‘Double Fantasy’ that he had been working on with his wife. However, that same year Lennon was shot dead by an insane fan outside his New York apartment. The world was saddened by Lennon’s sudden departure. Meanwhile, Ono focused her time on her music and art in order to cope with Lennon’s death. Over the years, Yoko expanded her career in many new directions such as photography.