Ikuo Hirayama's Biography

Professor Ikuo Hirayama is born on 15 June 1930, in Setoda-cho, Hiroshima, Japan. He was a junior high school student of 15 years old in Hiroshima, when the atomic bomb dropped. Most of his school mates died as so many people in Hiroshima, the survivers got serious lucemic ilnesses, needing a contineous treatment. In March 1952, Ikuo Hirayama graduated from the Tokyo School of Arts, presently Tokyo National Academy of Fine Arts and Music. At about his 30-thies he became again very ill of the post effects of the bomb, was given some serious clinic treatment and without much hope sent to Setoda. He spent most in his bed feeling very poorly, when he saw an imaginary painting with his inner eyes, radiating very special etherial light guiding him farther and farther through dark woods, through dark waters to a kind of beeing so smiling, kind and attentive as only Buddha could be. And in fact what he saw in front of him was Buddha alive, moving and still at the same time, made of ligth soft and golden, stroking and encouraging everything, everyone approaching Him. All the pain, all the suffering, all the weakness disappeared, the sadness left the exhosted body and an enourmous joy filled it instead. The triumph of life transfigured everything, and everything was given a soul made of the transfigurations of primary ligth, as he saw it for the first time. What Ikuo Hirayama wanted at that moment was paints, paper and easel to paint everything he saw and felt for himself, for his close people, for everyone hopeless, in despair, lost. The story could be heard by Ikuo Hirayama himself, by his close people, on sunset in Setoda-cho told to the Inland sea by the Sun, looking at Master Ikuo paintings of Buddha, or listening to the whisper of paints in his studio mingled with babbling away water in the garden outside.

Then the chronicle shows:

Career:

1973 - Professor at the Tokyo National Academy of Fine Arts and Music

1988 - Dean of the Faculty of Fine Arts in the Tokyo National Academy of Fine Arts and Music

1989 - 1995 - President of the Tokyo National Academy of Fine Arts and Music

1996 - President of Japan Scholarship Foudation

2002 - 2006 - President of the Tokyo National Academy of Fine Arts and Music


Affiliation and Positions:

1988 - UNESCO Ambassador of Goodwill

1992 - Chairman of the China-Japan Friendship Association and member of Boards of numerous Japan-Asian countries Committees

1993 - Chairman of the Art Research Organisation

1994 - Chaiman of the Foundation of Cultural Heritage

1995 - UNESCO Special Advisor to the Director General for World Cultural Heritage

1996 - President of the Japan Institute of Fine Arts


Awards:

1961 - “A Vision of the Buddha’s Death” received The Japan Institute of Fine Arts Award and Taikan Yokoyama Awards

1976 - Grand prize of the Japan Arts by the Association for the Promotion of the Arts

1991 - Commandeur des Arts et Lettres, France

1992 - Honorary Doctor at Waseda University (Dr. of Letters),
Cultural Award of the Kanagawa Prefecture

1993 - Order of Cultural Merit,
Special Award from the Smithsonian Institution

1995 - Crystal Prize at the Annual General Meeting of the World Economic Forum, Geneva, Switzerland

1995 - The 4th Montblanc Award for Patronage of the Arts

1996 - Legion d’Honneur, France

1997 - The UNESCO Carthage Gold Medal

1998 - Member of the Academy of Arts of Uzbekistan

1998 - The Japanese Order of Culture

1999 - Nominated for corresponding member of L’Academie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres (The Academy of the Cultural Sciences)

1999 - The Order of James Smithson

2000 - Gold Medal of the Academy of Arts of Uzbekistan

2001 - Ramon Magsaysay Award for Peace and International Understanding

2001 - The Japan Foundation Award/The Japan Foundation Special Prizes

The great Mission of Professor Ikuo Hirayama’s life is his Conception For World Peace through “The Red Cross Spirit for Cultural Heritage”, which has grown gradually into a Movement, officially established in Japan during the 80-thies of the 20-th century. UNESCO accepted the Conception by promotion of Professor Ikuo Hirayama as UNESCO Ambassador of Goodwill and created conditions for its development which is connected with the numerous activities, enormous efforts and continuous sponsorship raised by Professor Hirayama.

Professor Ikuo Hirayama is outstanding Japanese painter. His paintings, located in the strong traditions of Japanese-style painting nihonga, are unmistakably Japanese, but they look outwards to the rest of the world and express the spirit of peaceful cooperation and appreciation of our common world heritage.

He began painting and cured himself with Buddhism and Buddhist subjects. And Buddhism gave him the freedom to paint symbolically, abstractly or figuratively, and develop a luminous, lyrical style characterized by muted-but-glowing colors, unclear lines and ambiguous forms. Master Ikuo Hirayama went back to the roots of Japanese culture and spirituality. He traced it to its sources in China and India, as the scholar Tenshin Okakura, one of the founders of the nihonga movement, had done in the 19th century. This meant that Professor Ikuo Hirayama went looking for Japan in the wilds of Central Asia, as he developed a fascination for the Silk Road and the seventh-century Buddhist monk Xuan Zhuang, who spent 17 years in traveling between Tang Dynasty China and India in search of Sanskrit sutras. And Professor Ikuo Hirayama traveled nearly all the path of Xuan Zhuang and hundreds of times the Silk Road, which is over 300 000 km, sketching and painting numerous scenes, landscapes, monuments and temples.

With all this experience he painted a large fresco depicting the journey of Xuan Zhuang in the Genjo Sanzo – Xuan Zhuang Wing of the Yakushi-ji temple in Nara, Japan, 2000.

The paintings of scenes along the Silk Road often have the sublimity and spirituality that comes naturally to the vast and the ancient. This reflects that, in essence, spirituality is about how far we can remove ourselves from the here and now. In visiting and painting such vistas, there's a palpable sense of Hirayama finding the perspective that allowed him to look once again at his country and the unbearable events of August 6, 1945. Written by C. B. LIDDELL in The Japan times on 27 September 2007 in "Ikuo Hirayama: A Retrospective — Pilgrimage for Peace" an Exhibition runs till Oct. 21 at the Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, 3-1 Kitanomaru Koen, Chiyoda-ku.

Professor Ikuo Hirayama established two museums in Setoda-cho, Hirayama Ikuo Museum of Art, and Hokuto near Tokyo, Hirayama Ikuo the Silk Road Museum with his paintings and artifacts from his traveling along the Silk Road.

There is only one more Center Ikuo Hirayama outside Japan:
“The Ikuo Hirayama International Caravan-Sarai of Culture” at the Crossroads of the Great Silk Road, Tashkent, Uzbekistan

One of the most remarkable achievements of the global civilization is the Great Silk Road that connected East and West for the first time in the history of the humankind. The beginning of its functioning dates back to the second half of the 2nd century B.C. The name "Silk Road" was first introduced into academic vocabulary by a German scholar Freiherr von Richthofen in 1877. Not only the Great Silk Road helped to export silk and other goods, but it was also the origin of diverse spiritual values, religious ideas, artistic cultures and traditions.

The Ikuo Hirayama International Caravan-Sarai of Culture (ICSC) is an academic, training and educational centre engaged in promoting cultural heritage of Uzbekistan, Japan and other countries located along the path of the Great Silk Road. In 1999 a famous Japanese artist Ikuo Hirayama invited Tursunali Kuziev, Chairman of the Academy of Arts of Uzbekistan, to be his guest in the city of Kamakura (Japan) and shared his idea of creating a Caravan-Sarai of Culture. This idea was supported by Islam Karimov, the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan, who ensured the implementation of construction of the ICSC.

The Uzbek-Japanese academic and creative centre called Caravan-Sarai of Culture was inaugurated in March 2002; the ceremony was attended personally by Professor Hirayama, a well-known Japanese artist, patron of arts, traveller and explorer, public figure, the President of the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music, the Good Will Ambassador of UNESCO and the leader of the official Japanese delegation for the studies of the Great Silk Road carried out jointly with research centres in the two countries.

Following the order of the Cabinet of Ministers of the Republic of Uzbekistan issued in 2004, the International Caravan-Sarai of Culture was given its official name and status. The International Caravan-Sarai of Culture facilitates the revival of the Silk Road traditions and the development of an international dialogue of cultures on the basis of mutual respect, religious and ethnic tolerance.

Means for Achievement the Targets of the Centre

* Co-operation in setting up a scheme for the exchange of knowledge and information between Bulgarian, Japanese, and other institutes and NGO’s concerned with the awareness of cultural heritages;

* Establishing Network for disseminating the ideas of the Centre and the results of its work. The practically unlimited resources of digital space offer a unique possibility for making people acquainted with the cultural heritages of different part of the world, both from a professional and a human point of view. The virtual recreation of a cultural heritage should not be found in the production of replicas and copies, but in revealing the true value of its artefacts and other achievements of the human spirit;

* Publication of proceedings of meetings and workshops dedicated to preserving and disseminating a cultural heritage;

* Translation and research concerned with a cultural heritage and with manuscripts and cultural texts representative of given societies and religions;

* Creation of a Web-site with current information;

* Establishment of a fund to finance publications, research and albums for the cultural heritages of the Balkans.

The Centre's Activities

* To organize schools, summer schools and classes for children and school boys and schoolgirls from the Gymnasiums of Arts;

* To organize competitions and arrange grants for gifted school-children and students who have already made their marks in fields of artistic creativity: fine and applied arts, the humanities, and music;

* To organize competitions and support research and other kinds of projects and activities offered by young researchers in connection with both the cultural recreation and rediscovery of the Silk Road, and the exchange of cultural knowledge between different societies;

* To organize workshops and discussions in connection with the differences and the unifying moments between different religious doctrines and their impact in the present world, and also their influence over the works and monuments of art in the corresponding cultural regions;

* To organize workshops and other activities on peace and peace movements, and on preserving the cultural heritages of regions hard hit by damaging social conflicts and wars, especially in the Balkans;

* To establish permanent working group from representatives of the countries in the Balkan peninsula on problems of cultural heritage and its popularization, with a view to optimizing the information exchange and improving the organization of collaboration between different state institutions, NGO’s and benefactors;

* To organize joint exhibitions and other activities concerning the dissemination of the art and culture of communities and countries linked by the Silk Road, and the rediscovery of the spiritual and cultural importance of the Road;

* To contribute to UNESCO Inclusive Education in creating an “Animated” Digital Map of cultural heritage of the Balkans and South-East Europe, and corresponding database of information through enlivening it by establishing corresponding school and university initiatives.

The Centre's Targets

* To preserve and popularize cultural heritages of the Balkan peninsula, where they are exposed to the destructive impact of natural and social factors because of a lack of the finance needed to protect them. In this part of world there exist unique architectural and art complexes connected with the tradition of Orthodox Christianity, which, with few exceptions, are not known and valued enough across the world;

* To create conditions for the manifestation and development of the artistic and scientific gifts of schoolboys and schoolgirls, students and young researchers, and for the support of their artistic and scientific work in a context of understanding, tolerance and harmony;

* To use the possibilities of digital technology to popularize a cultural heritage and make it freely accessible to distant societies and regions. To develop a digital network of cultural heritage for use by and for academics and students, and people broadly aware of such matters.

About Cultural Values

The human spirit can only realize its full potential when aware of its cultural heritage and made able to unlock the springs of creativity. Although a cultural heritage is built up by individuals and has come into being in a specific historical situation, it is also an inexhaustible treasure that belongs to every human being. That is why a priority task of the intellectual community in the present world is to preserve our cultural heritage, to increase awareness of it, and to bring more people in touch with it and inspire the creation of new works. Persons involved in these efforts are supporting the causes of non-violence, mutual understanding and peace. The deed of creativity in its full extent both preserves peace and enlarges human freedom.

To preserve and respect peace and freedom are special acts of the human mind, concerned with the discovery of differences. In our present world it is of great importance to be able to perceive distinctions, within a cultural horizon of traditional notions, values and knowledge, which determine our assessments and motivate human decisions. As differences are part of human history and heritage, they are part of us, of ourselves. To understand and respect them is a necessary step towards avoiding violence and confrontation, both of which lead to the destruction of the primary values and achievements of the human spirit.

Working for and preserving peace, and avoiding violence, are processes with a deep and long-lasting impact. It is possible through rediscovering one’s cultural heritage and using its vitality, its power to develop the human spirit and enrich individuality, to achieve balance and harmony in the present world. The need is for this heritage to be rediscovered, preserved, disseminated, and made as widely available as possible. It is a powerful device for arousing the creative forces and developing the creative potential. The rediscovery of a cultural heritage has four basic aspects:

- artefacts and monuments, music;

- religious doctrines;

- cultural texts - historical, philosophical;

- habits, traditions, ceremonies.

Awareness of these great achievements of humanity, the citadels of human spirit, is directly connected with the understanding that genuine human power shows in creativity, by which real progress is accomplished. The Universe of Creation is infinite: there is space in it for all religious teachings, for different traditions and understandings. Cultural achievements are foci and landmarks of creative energy and at the same time signs, certificates for the task and the dedication of human beings - to discover their own capacities and to express their inner potential.

Thus present societies need a net of centres to be built, making possible, on the one hand, the exchange of ideas and knowledge, and on the other, contacts and interactions among individuals and groups belonging to different cultures. On both levels, the higher intellectual one and that of everyday understanding, such activities contribute and help to form conditions for discovering and expressing people’s creative potential and thus for building a society based on mutual understanding, respect and enrichment. In this sense the history of our human spirit and our cultural heritage make a valuable contribution towards the building of such a society in a risky, unstable and uncertain world.

The Centre

The main purpose of the Centre “Ikuo Hirayama” is to deepen contacts and interactions between communities and individuals: people concerned with the arts, scholars and professional people, students and children from Japan and Bulgaria. Japan and Bulgaria are one of the most easterly, and one of the most westerly countries of the Silk Road. On the brink of the Third Millennium and in the context of global processes bringing anxiety and real danger for the future of humanity, the mutual opening and exploration of different cultures and cultural values in an atmosphere of tolerance and respect is a necessary process for the attainment and preservation of world peace.

The Centre “Ikuo Hirayama” in Sofia will be a symbolic lighthouse sited at one of the European points of the Silk Road, rediscovered through Ikuo Hirayama’s paintings. It will disseminate some basic ideas of his conception For World Peace through “The Red Cross Spirit for Cultural Heritage”. Following these ideas, a new initiative, Schools for Arts and Cultural Dialog “Ikuo Hirayama” in Bulgaria in unison with UNESCO Inclusive Education, is in a process of developing in Bulgaria, and later going to expand across the Balkans. It will express Ikuo Hirayama’s message for preserving the cultural heritage of peoples and making them better known, and for peace and non-violence among people with different religious beliefs through the power of knowledge, soul and cultural development and refinement, and mutual enrichment.

The Bulgarian Presidency has approved and undertaken to support the founding and activities of the Centre “Ikuo Hirayama”, mentioned especially by the Bulgarian President in his message delivered at the opening ceremony of Professor Ikuo Hirayama’s exhibition “Cultural Exchange between East and West”, Sofia – 2003, and published in the Exhibition Catalogue.

About Centre "Ikuo Hirayama"

* The Centre “Ikuo Hirayama” in Sofia, Bulgaria succeeded the Organizing Committee “Ikuo Hirayama” established in January 2003 for organizing the First Exhibition of Professor Ikuo Hirayama “Cultural Exchange between East and West”, held in Sofia National Gallery of Foreign Arts in May-June 2003, under the Patronage of the Bulgarian President, Mr. Georgi Parvanov”.

* In May 2002 Professor Donka Angelova visited the Hirayama Ikuo Museum of Art at the Japanese Seto-Naikai island, Setoda-cho, the birthplace of Professor Ikuo Hirayama. There she met the Director of the Museum, Mr. Yoshio Hirayama who was the older brother of Professor Ikuo Hirayama.

That Meeting became the symbolical birth of the Centre “Ikuo Hirayama”, established later in Sofia, Bulgaria, and Setoda-cho – its birthplace.

* In May 2003 Professor Ikuo Hirayama came to Sofia, Bulgaria for the opening of his exhibition. He was accompanied by his brother, Mr. Yoshio Hirayama and his wife, Mrs. Michico Hirayama.

During his visit in Bulgaria Professor Ikuo Hirayama had:

· Meeting with the President of Bulgaria;

· Meeting with the Minister of Culture;

· Meeting with the Rector of Sofia University “Kl. Ohridski”, where gave a lecture about his Mission of preserving cultural heritage and world peace, and about his extraordinary life and outstanding achievements in Fine Arts. The honorary degree Doctor Honoris Causa of Sofia University “Kl. Ohridski” was conferred on Professor Ikuo Hirayama;

· Meeting with the Director of the Centre of Eastern Cultures and Languages at the Sofia University “Kl. Ohridski”;

· Meeting with the Rector of the Bulgarian Academy of Fine Arts and Academicians-Contemporary Bulgarian painters, visiting the different Faculties and Ateliers of the Academy;

· Meeting with the Director and the young painters from the Gymnasiums of Fine Arts in Sofia, where he opened the Children Festival of painting “My message for Peace” held at the same time in the Gymnasiums of Fine Arts in Sofia and the Gymnasiums of Fine Arts in Kazanluk. The prize-won paintings from both Gymnasiums were exhibited in Tokyo and Hiroshima after the arrangements made by Professor Ikuo Hirayama;

· Meeting with representatives of Cultural Society in Kazanluk and giving a speech to them. Also he visited the Exhibition of the modern Bulgarian painter Nikola Manev and The Festival of the Bulgarian Rose in the Rose Valley near Kazanluk;

As UNESCO Ambassador of Good Will, Professor Ikuo Hirayama visited ones of the most valuable cultural heritages in Bulgaria:

· Thracian Tomb in Kazanluk Valley;

· Old Town in Plovdiv, followed by rising some UNESCO Funds for its restoration;

· Rila Monastery;

· National Historical and Archeological Museums in Sofia and the Medieval Icon Treasury of Sofia Cathedral “Aleksander Nevski”;

* The Exhibition and visit of Professor Ikuo Hirayama were organized with the kind co-operation of the Japanese Embassy in Sofia.

* In October 2005 an Exposition of posters The Japanese Painter Ikuo Hirayama: A Transformation of Atomic Bomb Tragedy in Hiroshima into a Mission of Preserving Cultural Heritage and World Peace was held during the Days of the Japanese Culture in the Bulgarian National Philharmonic Hall “Bulgaria”, dedicated to the 75th Anniversary of Ikuo Hirayama. The Exposition was opened by His Excellency, the Japanese Ambassador to Bulgaria, and Professor Donka Angelova, Head of The Organizing Committee “Ikuo Hirayama”.

The Exposition was organized with the kind co-operation of the Japanese Embassy in Sofia.

* In May 2006 Professor Ikuo Hirayama invited Professor Donka Angelova to Kamakura, Tokyo for some talks about the Bulgarian Initiative for institutionalization of The Organizing Committee “Ikuo Hirayama” as an NGO named “Centre Ikuo Hirayama”.

Professor Angelova visited Ikuo Hirayama’s Foundation of Cultural Heritage and Institute “The Silk Road”, Tokyo National Academy of Fine Arts and Music, under the Presidency of Professor Ikuo Hirayama, and Hirayama Ikuo Silk Road Museum at Hokuto City, near Tokyo, the Yakushi-ji Temple, around Nara, with the famous fresco-paintings by Master Ikuo Hirayama.

* After the Meeting between Professor Ikuo Hirayama and Professor Donka Angelova in Kamakura, Tokyo, some organization activity in Bulgaria took place, including many meetings between The Organizing Committee “Ikuo Hirayama” and the followers of Professor Ikuo Hirayama’s Mission For World Peace through “The Red Cross Spirit for Cultural Heritage”. Among those followers were representatives of Sofia School “Vasil Zlatarski”, Gymnasiums of Fine Arts in Sofia and Kazanluk, The National Academy of Fine Arts, The Centre for Eastern Languages and Cultures at Sofia University “Kliment Ohridski”, The Archeological Institute of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences.

* In January-April 2009 The Centre “Ikuo Hirayama” had some discussions with Professor Ikuo Hirayama about his next Exhibition in Sofia, Bulgaria and the Centre Activities stressing on establishment of Schools for Arts and Cultural Dialog “Ikuo Hirayama” in Bulgaria, opened to children and students from Bulgaria and Japan on exchange base.

* Now, Professor Ikuo Hirayama is the Honorary President of the Centre “Ikuo Hirayama” and Mr. Yoshio Hirayama – its Honorary Member.

The Centre's Mission

The Centre “Ikuo Hirayama” is established in Sofia, Bulgaria in April, 2009.

Mission of the Centre “Ikuo Hirayama” is to spread in Bulgaria, and especially among young generation, the idea of Preserving Cultural Heritage and Balkan and World Peace after the Movement For World Peace through “The Red Cross Spirit for Cultural Heritage”, established officially by Professor Ikuo Hirayama in Japan during the 80-thies of the 20-th century. The Centre “Ikuo Hirayama” develops art of making contacts between Bulgarian and Japanese Schools in learning about National Cultural Heritage and representing it, each side to the other one, through children’s eyes and different art forms.

The first School for Arts and Cultural Dialog “Ikuo Hirayama” in Bulgaria, starts on 15 October 2009. It is devoted to the idea of Preserving Cultural Heritage and Balkan and World Peace, and based on Sofia School “Vasil Zlatarski” and its Club of Japanese Friends, established in 2004.

The Japanese great public figure and painter, the UNESCO Ambassador of Goodwill Professor Ikuo Hirayama is Honorary President of the Centre “Ikuo Hirayama”. He has traveled and rediscovered The Silk Road in hundreds of his paintings, and spread his Mission For World Peace through “The Red Cross Spirit for Cultural Heritage” along it. And The Silk Road has gradually turned into a symbol of Ikuo Hirayama’s Mission, as it has always been: the means, real and symbolic, by which for many centuries East and West not only traded in silk and other precious goods, but exchanged religious and philosophical ideas and styles of art in the very special art of living together.

Дни на Икуо Хираяма в гр. Варна

В началото на месец Октомври предстои откриването на Дни на Икуо Хираяма в гр. Варна.

В рамките на два дни ще бъдат открити Второто българско училище за изкуства и културен диалог при СОУ "Гео Милев", гр. Варна, както и изложбата "Живото наследство на Икуо Хираяма: път на коприната, кръстопът на културата".

Изложбата, трета по рода си за България, е посветена на 80-годишнината от рождението на Икуо Хираяма и обявяването на кандидатурата на гр. Варна за културна столица на Европа.