Kyuichiro Aihara1918~1999 相原求一朗

Kyuichiro Aihara was a Western-style painter born in Kawagoe, Saitama Prefecture in 1918. After surviving a near-fatal plane crash during World War II, he studied under Genichiro Inokuma from 1948 and debuted at the Shinseisaku Association Exhibition in 1950. A 1961 trip to Hokkaido became the turning point of his career, and he devoted himself to depicting the vast winter landscapes of northern Japan with subdued, poetic color tones, becoming the foremost painter of Hokkaido's scenery. In 1996, the Aihara Kyuichiro Art Museum was established in Nakasatsunai Village, Hokkaido. He passed away on February 5, 1999.