Nell Beram - Yoko Ono: Collector of Skies

oko Ono never felt as though she belonged to any groupas an artist, a musician, a Japanese person, and, later, a wife and mother. It was in her art that she expressed her true self and found refuge. Through written words, song, and performance, Yoko sought to findand createbeauty in everything around her. She held fast to her belief that everything has the power of transformation. Anything can become art.

This lyrical illustrated biography explores the life and art of Yoko Ono, from her childhood as part of an aristocratic family in war-torn Japan to her early days in New York City as a budding artist among the avant-garde, and from her legendary marriage to John Lennon to her recognition as one of the worlds most innovative and inspiring artists and musicians. Complete with photographs from her personal collection and captivating reproductions of her original artwork, Yoko Ono: Collector of Skies reveals the spirit and soul of an enigmatic, tenacious woman and a groundbreaking, misunderstood artist.

For Eva and Marlon, my favorite young artistsN. B.

For Eliot, Alyssa, Will, Benjamin, and AndrewC. B. K.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Beram, Nell.
Yoko Ono : collector of skies / by Nell Beram and Carolyn
Boriss-Krimsky.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-4197-0444-4 (alk. paper)
1. Ono, Yoko. 2. ArtistsUnited StatesBiography.
I. Boriss-Krimsky, Carolyn. II. Title.
NX512.O56B47 2013
700.92dc23
[B]
2012011539

Text copyright 2013 Nell Beram and Carolyn Boriss-Krimsky Book design by Maria T. Middleton

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oko and Keisuke were hiding in an abandoned building. Like many Japanese children, they had been evacuated from war-torn Tokyo and brought to the countryside. They were hungry. But Yoko was less distressed about her empty stomach than about her usually upbeat younger brothers listlessness.

Lets create a menu, OK? she said. Think of the dinner you want to eat.

After some prodding, he offered, I want ice cream.

But thats a dessert, she said. We should start with soup, of course.

Yoko goaded him some more, and together, lying on their backs and looking up at the ceiling, they created fantasy menus as though ideas alone could feed them. Through a crack in the roof, Yoko caught a glimpse of the blue sky, and at that moment she felt certain that everything would be all right.

It wouldnt be the last time the sky would provide comfort and imagination would seem to have the power to save her life.

NORMALLY, YOKO ONO was not a child who seemed in need of saving. Her family was wealthy and powerful, and her lineage included scholars, warriors, and rulers. But she never would have been born if Eisuke Ono and Isoko Yasuda hadnt done something unusual for Japanese people in the early 1930s: They married for love.

Yokos father, Eisuke, came from a long line of scholarly samurai warriors. He could even claim to be the descendant of a ninth-century emperor. Eisukes father was a Tokyo banker who, like Eisukes mother, valued education. Their son earned advanced degrees in economics and math at Tokyo University. Eisukes true passion, however, was music. He was moved by Bach, Beethoven, Brahms, and some of the other composers of Europenot the Eastern musicians he had grown up listening to.

Eisuke embarked on a professional career as a pianist. He was a favorite performer at social events in Karuizawa, a village in the mountains a hundred miles north of Tokyo, where his familywell-off but certainly not richhad a summer home. Given Eisukes good looks, smarts, and obvious talent, it was no wonder that young women considered him a catch.

Around Karuizawa, Isoko Yasuda was impossible to miss. She was exceptionally beautiful, fashionable, and wealthy. Her paternal grandfather, Zenjir Yasuda, had been the founder of the prominent Yasuda Bank. Zenjir was succeeded as head of the bank by Isokos father, Zenzaburo. Practically everybody in Japan had heard of the Yasudas. Isoko could have married just about anyone she wanted to.

After Isoko and Eisuke began a romance, Eisukes dream of furthering his musical career began to fall apart. Isoko had grown up like a princess, in an extravagant household with thirty-odd servants. She was chauffeured around in a private car and rewarded with diamonds just for getting good grades. Her parents didnt approve of their daughter, whose assets far exceeded Eisukes, marrying a musician. It didnt help that he, like a small minority of Japanese, was Christian. The Yasudas were Buddhist.

In Japan, as in the West at that time, a married man was seen as the provider for the household, and a musical career didnt guarantee a good income. But in the end, it wasnt Isokos parents who convinced Eisuke to give up his musical ambitions. After his father died, Eisuke learned from his will that he wanted his son to stop playing the piano and follow in his footsteps by becoming a banker. Eisuke agreedreluctantlyto give up music to honor his dead fathers wishes and to please the parents of the woman he loved.

After Eisuke and Isoko wed, he moved into the dauntingly large Yasuda compound, where Isoko had been living, in the ancient city of Kamakura, which overlooked Tokyo. It was in those palatial surroundings that Yoko came into the world one snowy night, on February 18, 1933. But Eisuke wasnt there for Yokos birth. Two weeks earlier, he had been transferred from a bank in Tokyo to one in San Francisco. In Yokos first memory of her father, he is a mysterious stranger looking out at her from a photograph. My mother would show me his picture before bedtime and tell me, Say good night to Father.