Latest news with #Kyoko
Yomiuri Shimbun
14-07-2025
- General
- Yomiuri Shimbun
Saitama Pref. Artisans Pass on Traditions with Chichibu Meisen Silks
CHICHIBU, Saitama — On a day in late May, I visited a facility in central Chichibu, Saitama Prefecture, where guests can experience the production of woven silk fabrics. Artisans were working on stencil-dyeing white warp threads that had been temporarily woven together for the coloring process. The workers pressed metal frames, bearing various patterned stencils, to the threads and then applied the dye, in a process similar to block-printing. The layering of several dyes produced colorful patterns on the fabric. Kyoko Henmi, 57, the third-generation owner of Henmi Orimono, a long-established textile production studio, was working with her artisans to make fabric that would be used in 'osoroi tsumugi' kimonos. These garments are worn by the men who pull the gorgeous floats that feature in the Chichibu Yomatsuri (Chichibu night festival) every December. The traditional techniques for making these fabrics have fed the community's enthusiasm for making brand-new kimono for dozens of men every year for the festival. Chichibu is located deep in the mountains. It has only a small amount of land suitable for growing rice, so its silk industry thrived for many years, starting in the Edo period (1603-1867). Beginning in the early Meiji era (1868-1912), high-end silk thread was shipped off for export and other purposes, and locals produced everyday clothing using fabrics woven from lower-quality thread. This was the origin of the Chichibu Meisen style of fabrics. These fabrics are made with a technique called 'hogushi nassen,' in which warp threads are temporarily woven together and dyed using stencils. Because the threads, not the finished fabrics, are dyed, both the front and back sides have the same coloration. This makes it possible for the clothes to be worn for a long time, contributing to their finished fabrics are colorful, with cute designs, and they have been praised for their iridescent look, as the colors seem to shift based on the angle from which they are viewed. However, the number of studios that produce these fabrics, which was in the hundreds in the latter half of the Showa era (1926-1989), has since dwindled. They have gone out of business one after another as Western-style clothes and synthetic textiles have become more widespread. Henmi Orimono was established in 1927 by Kyoko's grandfather, Tadashige. When she was around 20, she was hoping to become a hairdresser. But Tadashige, who was then bed-ridden due to an illness, told her, 'I want you to prevent the tradition from dying out.' So she decided to take over the family automatic looms in her studio have been in use since around World War II. The machines make a lot of noise as they weave woof threads into fabrics. Patterns produced by the machines vary from traditional floral and geometric ones to those designed by younger craftsmen on their computers. Kyoko is undertaking efforts to make bags and various other items with the fabrics, seeking ways to expand their range of uses. 'I want to pass on what is good about Chichibu Meisen to future generations in various ways,' she said. Henmi OrimonoAddress: 1463 Kuroya, Chichibu, Saitama Prefecture. Goods from the studio are available at a shop on the first floor of Chichibu Furusato-kan hall, located at 3-1 Motomachi in the city. Access: The shop is a five-minute walk from Chichibu Station on the Chichibu Railway Line or a 15-minute walk from Seibu-Chichibu Station. Hours: The shop is open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Friday-Tuesday and is closed on Wednesday and Thursday.
Asahi Shimbun
09-07-2025
- Business
- Asahi Shimbun
Free English conversation videos teach in short bursts
Kaho Fujikawa, founder of Logiglish Inc., holds a smartphone showing a scene from 'English Learning Manga 'Kyoko'' at the Osaka Metropolitan University's Umeda campus in the city's Kita Ward on May 9. (Yasuji Nagai) OSAKA—A university startup company is uploading free, short English-learning videos daily, hoping to help locals communicate more easily with the many foreign visitors here for the Osaka Kansai Expo 2025. The startup, Logiglish Inc., was founded in February 2023 by Kaho Fujikawa, 23, when she was a sophomore at Osaka City University. That university later merged with Osaka Prefecture University to form Osaka Metropolitan University, where Fujikawa is now a graduate student in the business management program. The company's name is a combination of the words 'English' and 'logic,' a quality essential for language learning. Logiglish is the first startup certified and supported by the university. The short video series, titled 'English Learning Manga 'Kyoko,'' began streaming in April, the same month the Osaka Expo opened. Most episodes are just 30 to 50 seconds long. The story centers around Kyoko, who wants to be a photographer and lives in New York with her father. She makes a solo trip to Kyoto, where she has memories of her mother. Conversational expressions such as 'Now I am heading to Kyoto' and 'Do I know you?' are featured in each episode. The video series also includes a miniseries: 'Takoyaki Santo Monogatari' (A tale of three cities of 'takoyaki'), which explains in English and Japanese the differences between three types of takoyaki octopus dumplings. Real shops, restaurants and other locations are featured in the series. Logiglish's main business is providing custom-made English learning programs to help people say exactly what they want to say. The company offers 15-part courses customized for each student to learn English vocabulary and phrases required in their field, such as marketing or development, and uses business documents and related publications as study materials. The company uses artificial intelligence to design the study programs and aims to provide AI-automated learning guidance in the future. Fujikawa, who attended Kobe University-affiliated institutions from kindergarten to high school, was fascinated by debates in English.. She won third place at a national debate tournament for high school students even though she had not studied overseas for an extended period. She also came in first at a national, university-level competition. While she was honing her English debate skills, she found it useful to consider how to explain concepts in English, rather than just learning words and phrases by rote. Fujikawa decided to found the company after attending a lecture by Atsushi Sakahara, 58, a film director and writer, who serves as a part-time instructor at the university. Sakahara, who taught economics in English, had been involved in developing learning programs in Silicon Valley using AI and speech recognition technologies. He decided to co-found Logiglish with Fujikawa because he supported her idea for developing a new English learning program. 'I want to help increase opportunities for people in this city to communicate with visitors from all over during the (Osaka) Kansai Expo, which is a rare opportunity,' Fujikawa said. The short video series is available at (
Yahoo
25-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Yoko Ono's daughter was kidnapped, raised in cult — and didn't reunite with her mom for decades
Kyoko Ono is speaking out over a traumatic time in her life. After she was kidnapped at seven years old by her dad, Anthony Cox, her mom Yoko Ono and her step-father John Lennon moved to New York City in hopes of locating her. However, it wasn't until she was 30 years old that she picked up the phone and called her mother, now 92. 'When people hear about my story, they don't understand what it was like before Facebook,' Kyoko, 61, revealed to the Daily Mail. 'There's my mom and John doing all these things to appeal to me.' However, she had no idea about the search that was underway for her, and instead, grew up in a cult. Cox, who was Ono's second husband, kidnapped Kyoko during their custody battle when he violated a court order. 'It makes me sound heartless. But I was living on a farm in Iowa,' Kyoko continued to the outlet. 'We didn't own a TV. And a lot of people don't understand that there's a lifestyle like that.' By that time, Ono had remarried Lennon, the Beatles singer and guitarist who was assassinated in Decemebr 1980. In 1971, Cox and his new wife Melinda Kendall took Kyoko to Spain, and enrolled her in a meditation preschool in Majorca. Ono found out about the move through her lawyers, in which she and Lennon immediately flew to Spain to pick up Kyoko from school. They were then arrested in their hotel room for kidnapping. Kyoko and her parents ended up going to court, in which the judge asked the child who she wanted to live with. Although she didn't want to chose, the judge insisted. 'So, I said my dad, and my mom was upset… I felt like I had an impossible choice to make.' As for her reasoning, Kyoko said, 'My mom and John were incredibly busy people. Usually when I went and stayed with them, I had a nanny, and I sometimes wouldn't see them all day long. And [with] my dad and my stepmother, I'm their only child.' Cox eventually took Kyoko back to the United States. and on Christmas Eve 1971, despite Ono having visitation rights, he refused to bring Kyoko to her mother. 'When we left Houston, we were on the lam,' Kyoko admitted. 'And we went to Los Angeles and we went to a church connected with our church in Houston… and they took us in for a short period of time.' 'Then [the congregation] told us, 'We've prayed about it and you really need to return Kyoko to her mother,' which was not what my dad wanted to hear.' Cox then moved his family into The Living Word Fellowship – which was cult dismembered in 2018 due to sexual misconduct allegations. 'Today, as an adult, the biggest irony to me is we left a cult, in a way, when we left the Beatles and John and Yoko. People are fanatical [about them] on the level of being cult members,' explained Kyoko. 'I was very scared by that fame,' she remembered. 'So being in this very simple Christian community seemed very safe, like an easier life.' During that time in her life, Kyoko said they never talked about her mom or Lennon, but she said 'there were so many times that I said to my dad, 'I really want to get back in touch with my mom.'' Then, after growing up, getting married in 1992 to Jim Helfrich and becoming a teacher, Kyoko decided to call Ono. 'By that point, I'd been teaching at public school for six years,' she recounted. 'And I really understood kids and families better than my parents ever had. She wanted to see me right away and then we just started spending time together.' These days, Kyoko lives a quiet life outside of the spotlight. She and Helfrich, who she divorced in 2018, share kids Emi, 27, and John, 25. However, Kyoko wants to be able to set the record straight on her life, and her mom and step-dad's relationship. Ono and Lennon went on to have one son together, Sean, 49. He was also dad to son Julian, 62, with ex-wife Cynthia Lennon. 'I'm not really interested in being a public figure,' admitted Kyoko. 'But I am also my mom's daughter, and I want the story to be told properly.' She has also forgave the adults who were supposed to protect her. 'They were all such kids,' stated Kyoko. 'They were just like little children, all of them. It's really crazy. Being a parent – it's a hard thing to do.'
New York Post
24-05-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Post
Yoko Ono's daughter was kidnapped, raise in cult — and didn't reunite with her mom for decades
Kyoko Ono is speaking out over a traumatic time in her life. After she was kidnapped at seven years old by her dad, Anthony Cox, her mom Yoko Ono and her step-father John Lennon moved to New York City in hopes of locating her. However, it wasn't until she was 30 years old that she picked up the phone and called her mother, now 92. 'When people hear about my story, they don't understand what it was like before Facebook,' Kyoko, 61, revealed to the Daily Mail. 'There's my mom and John doing all these things to appeal to me.' 9 John Lennon, Yoko And Kyoko. Getty Images 9 Yoko Ono, Anthony Cox and Kyoko. Getty Images However, she had no idea about the search that was underway for her, and instead, grew up in a cult. Cox, who was Ono's second husband, kidnapped Kyoko during their custody battle when he violated a court order. 'It makes me sound heartless. But I was living on a farm in Iowa,' Kyoko continued to the outlet. 'We didn't own a TV. And a lot of people don't understand that there's a lifestyle like that.' 9 John Lennon with his wife Yoko Ono and her daughter Kyoko at London's Heathrow airport. Getty Images By that time, Ono had remarried Lennon, the Beatles singer and guitarist who was assassinated in Decemebr 1980. In 1971, Cox and his new wife Melinda Kendall took Kyoko to Spain, and enrolled her in a meditation preschool in Majorca. Ono found out about the move through her lawyers, in which she and Lennon immediately flew to Spain to pick up Kyoko from school. They were then arrested in their hotel room for kidnapping. Kyoko and her parents ended up going to court, in which the judge asked the child who she wanted to live with. Although she didn't want to chose, the judge insisted. 9 Yoko, Kyoko and John. Getty Images 'So, I said my dad, and my mom was upset… I felt like I had an impossible choice to make.' As for her reasoning, Kyoko said, 'My mom and John were incredibly busy people. Usually when I went and stayed with them, I had a nanny, and I sometimes wouldn't see them all day long. And [with] my dad and my stepmother, I'm their only child.' Cox eventually took Kyoko back to the United States. and on Christmas Eve 1971, despite Ono having visitation rights, he refused to bring Kyoko to her mother. 9 Yoko Ono, with her son, Sean Lennon (left) and stepson, Julian Lennon, March 1988. Getty Images 'When we left Houston, we were on the lam,' Kyoko admitted. 'And we went to Los Angeles and we went to a church connected with our church in Houston… and they took us in for a short period of time.' 'Then [the congregation] told us, 'We've prayed about it and you really need to return Kyoko to her mother,' which was not what my dad wanted to hear.' Cox then moved his family into The Living Word Fellowship – which was cult dismembered in 2018 due to sexual misconduct allegations. 9 Yoko Ono poses with Sean and Julian Lennon. Bettmann Archive 'Today, as an adult, the biggest irony to me is we left a cult, in a way, when we left the Beatles and John and Yoko. People are fanatical [about them] on the level of being cult members,' explained Kyoko. 'I was very scared by that fame,' she remembered. 'So being in this very simple Christian community seemed very safe, like an easier life.' During that time in her life, Kyoko said they never talked about her mom or Lennon, but she said 'there were so many times that I said to my dad, 'I really want to get back in touch with my mom.'' 9 Kyoko Chan Cox, daughter of Yoko Ono, attends the opening of the musical 'Lennon' at the Broadhurst Theater August 14, 2005 in New York City. Getty Images Then, after growing up, getting married in 1992 to Jim Helfrich and becoming a teacher, Kyoko decided to call Ono. 'By that point, I'd been teaching at public school for six years,' she recounted. 'And I really understood kids and families better than my parents ever had. She wanted to see me right away and then we just started spending time together.' These days, Kyoko lives a quiet life outside of the spotlight. She and Helfrich, who she divorced in 2018, share kids Emi, 27, and John, 25. 9 John Lennon and Yoko Ono. AP However, Kyoko wants to be able to set the record straight on her life, and her mom and step-dad's relationship. Ono and Lennon went on to have one son together, Sean, 49. He was also dad to son Julian, 62, with ex-wife Cynthia Lennon. 'I'm not really interested in being a public figure,' admitted Kyoko. 'But I am also my mom's daughter, and I want the story to be told properly.' She has also forgave the adults who were supposed to protect her. 9 Yoko Ono attends the World Premiere of 'The Beatles: Eight Days A Week – The Touring Years.' David M. Benett 'They were all such kids,' stated Kyoko. 'They were just like little children, all of them. It's really crazy. Being a parent – it's a hard thing to do.'
