Kuriyagawa Kenichi

Born in Iwamizawa, Hokkaido, 1911. Died in 1999. Kuriyagawa taught himself graphic design and became independent as a designer in 1948. He was known in Japan and elsewhere for his posters to promote tourism in Hokkaido, the Sapporo Snow Festival and the Winter Olympics bid, and presented eight posters for the Japanese Graphic Design Exhibition in the Museum of Modern Art, New York as a representative of Japan in 1956. He founded the Hokkaido Design Center (later renamed the Hokkaido Institute of Design), the first design educational facility in Hokkaido, in 1962, assumed the position of the first chair of the Hokkaido Design Association in 1982, and made huge achievements as a pioneer of graphic design in Hokkaido. He received numerous awards, including the Grand Prix at the World Tourism Poster Contest, the Sapporo Citizen Art Award, the Hokkaido Cultural Award, and the Fifth Class of the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold and Silver Rays. His designs are still seen in life in Sapporo, such as the design on walls of the subway and that of the drop curtain in the Sapporo Citizens Hall (today’s Wakuwaku Holiday Hall).