East Meets West – The Marriage Of German Ballerina Hedi Wekel and Japanese Cellist Yukichi Koh

Hedi Koh (born Hedwig Wekel) (1909 – 2012)

Hedi Koh who had died aged 103 was born on the 20^th February 1909 as Hedwig Wekel in Leipzig. She was a highly talented ballerina, nearly 19 years old, at the Leipzig opera when she met Yukichi Koh. He was the first Japanese man she had ever seen and she was surprised at this good looking, beautiful man. Till then she had only known Japanese faces from Japanese Ukiyo e, woodcut prints and had formed some strange perceptions about the appearance of Japanese people, expecting them to be yellow skinned and