Eiko Cecilia Kayano

Eiko Kayano was born in Tokyo, Japan on June 19, 1932. She passed peacefully in her home on October 2, 2025. She was 93 years old. Eiko’s early years were spent in the village of Unoki, on the outskirts of Tokyo, near the Tamagawa River. She was a pre-teen when WWII broke out. She survived the bombing and burning of Tokyo and struggled to get food for her family. After the war, she studied English, ballroom dancing, and cooking. She sewed her own poodle skirts and learned to make mayonnaise. At age 18, she was hired by the US Airforce at Haneda Airforce Base near Yokohama. She was a typist (typing over 100 words per minute on a manual typewriter), and translator. She was tasked with reading incoming and outgoing mail to check for communist correspondence. At the air force base she met Bernard Zilka. She converted to Catholicism and married Bernard at the St. Francis of Assis Catholic Church in Denenchofu. In 1956 the couple and their infant son Anthony moved to Hahn Airforce Base in Germany, where she gave birth to Cecilia. In 1959 they moved to Minnesota, where Serena was born.

Eiko’s family settled in the Seattle/Federal Way area of Washington State where Eiko bought and managed two Chinese/American restaurants and invested in real estate. She became an avid fisherman, fishing the Puget Sound, Cowlitz River, Riffe Lake, and Alaska. Her favorite specimen was salmon, especially steelhead. She only bait fished and could quickly string an earthworm onto a hook despite her long fingernails. She enjoyed the outdoors and camping and never hesitated to venture out solo. She could out fish any man on the shoreline or boat.

In early 2020, at the beginning of Covid, Eiko took a two-lane highway trip across the West to move to New Mexico. She became healthier, and more lively with each passing mile as she witnessed the wild horses and towering red rock formations. She even made fried rice for Russian trapeze artists in Crane, Oregon, and prepared a multi-course Japanese meal for a Shoshone Indian buckaroo in Elko, Nevada.

A few months after arriving in Santa Fe, New Mexico, Eiko developed lymphoma, and fought it bravely until early 2021, when she was declared cancer free. She sprang back to life, camping and fishing in northern New Mexico and Colorado, going on a cruise, and visiting Catalina Island, Puerto Vallarta, and Carmel, CA. In late 2024 at the age of 92, Eiko secretly booked a flight to Tokyo. She went there by herself and stayed for one month.

The final months of her life Eiko lived in Cerrillos, New Mexico. She made Japanese feasts for neighbors and friends, and was captivated by the sunrises, sunsets, and views of horses grazing by her living room window. One of her favorite activities was playing fetch with Mochi, the family’s blue heeler.

Eiko passed peacefully to the Lord and her ancestors. She will be remembered by her family and friends for her tenacity, sense of humor, and no-nonsense attitude, her cooking skills, and love of adventure. Eiko’s wish was that war, violence and suffering, especially that of children and animals, would come to an end.

Eiko is survived by Anthony (Teresa) Zilka, Cecilia Kayano, Serena (Rob) Wastman, six grandchildren, Isaiah, Luke, Isaac, Natalie, Kathy and Bo, four great-grandchildren, Savanah, Josiah, Mable and Mina, and one great-great grandchild, Remington.