The composer and pianist Toshi Ichiyanagi lived in New York from 1956 to 1960. There, he studied at Juilliard and the New School, and met Yoko Ono, who had moved to New York with her family in 1953 and attended Sarah Lawrence College. Ichiyanagi and Ono married in 1956, and both pursued experimental music and attended John Cage’s class on experimental composition. In the early 1960s, Ichiyanagi returned to Japan while Ono stayed in New York, a circumstance that precipitated their eventual separation in 1962. This correspondence between David Tudor and Ichiyanagi between 1961 and 1967 shows how Ichiyanagi was instrumental in popularizing the New York avant-garde in Tokyo and shows how he did substantial work organizing performances and tour arrangements for Cage and Tudor during their first trip to Japan in 1962.
Toshi Ichiyanagi Estate.
