Keiji Sakurai1919~2016 櫻井慶治

SAKURAI Keiji (1919 - June 6, 2016) was a Japanese Western-style (yoga) painter. He was born in Wada Village, Inba District, Chiba Prefecture (present-day Takasaki, Sakura City, Chiba), and after attending the old-system Sakura Middle School and the Chiba Normal School, he graduated from the Tokyo School of Fine Arts (now Tokyo University of the Arts) in 1949. While still a student, he was selected for the Kofukai exhibition in 1947 and 1948, and from 1956 to 1957 he studied in France as a Ministry of Education exchange student, traveling through Italy, Switzerland and other parts of Europe until 1964. On his second European-American trip in 1965, he won the Bronze Medal at Le Salon and the Grand Prix at the Vichy International Exhibition in France, followed by a Tokusen (Special Selection) award at the 10th Nitten exhibition in 1967.