Yoko Kawachino

Yoko Kawachino, 87, of West Park passed away peacefully on Monday July 27, 2026 at Jim and Lisa's Circle Home on Wurts Street, Kingston. She was born on January 3, 1939, the child of Kiyoshi and Hisako Kawachino on the island Kyushu in the Kumamoto Prefecture, Japan. Yoko immigrated to the United States in the 1960's where she learned textile design. She freelanced for a large textile design company, becoming one of their "Star Designers." She was very adept in drawing and painting, which she used to bring her designs to life. Yoko spent much of her free time singing and had a particular passion and talent for singing classical music.

She spent her later life with her partner, Yoshiko Tohyama who was a rare female sushi chef, and she was running a very popular sushi shop in East Village during the 1980s. Yoshiko bought a house in West Park in the late 1980s and moved to the Hudson Valley. She worked at SUNY New Paltz, where she dedicated herself to keeping the faculty office clean. Yoko and her mother purchased an 80 acres property in Ellenville, where Yoko took care of her mother until she passed. Together, Yoko and Yoshiko shared a fondness for Japanese culture, antiques, and both were sincere Buddhists as followers of the Nipponzan Myōhō-ji, Grafton Peace Pagoda. After suffering a stroke, Yoshiko passed away in January 2018 as a result of medical malpractices. Yoko was a breast cancer survivor, primarily due to her diligent personal diet and homemade herbal remedies.

In her final years after Yoshiko’s passing, several Japanese friends, volunteers from Nipponzan Myōhō-ji and local friends took care of her until the very end.