Multimedia artist, born in Tokyo, Japan. Born into a wealthy family, at age 18 she moved with them to Scarsdale, New York. She studied at Sarah Lawrence College, NY but left to elope with her first husband, Toshi Ichiyanagi. Settling in Greenwich Village, she developed her interest in art and also began writing poetry. Considered too radical by many, her work was not well received but she gained recognition after working with American jazz musician/film producer Anthony Cox, who later became her second husband. In the early 1960s she joined Fluxus, a group of avante-garde artists, and while attending an exhibition of their work in London in 1967, she met future husband John Lennon. They collaborated on art, film, and musical projects, and became famous for their series of ‘conceptual events’ to promote world peace, including the ‘bed-in’ held in an Amsterdam hotel room during their honeymoon in 1969. Following Lennon’s death in 1980, she continued her career and has recorded albums, performed concert tours, and composed two off-Broadway musicals. She exhibits her art internationally, and in 2002 the first US retrospective of her work opened in New York City. On 9 October that year, to commemorate what would have been Lennon’ 62nd birthday, she inaugurated the Lennon Ono Grant for Peace prize.