K. NAGAI (1947) -  grew up in Hachioji, a suburb of Tokyo, a place which has been famous for its silk industry. His father was a professional weaver and a manufacturer of material from which he made kimonos. He also made decorative designs for these - whilst in his garden he planted flowers which produced the colour mixtures for the designs. So Kenji was obviously very much affected by his environment; in fact, he started to create his own art-work from a very early age and which his father obviously encouraged. Later he was impressed by paintings of  Van Gogh and even tried to imitate his art. K. Nagai was graduated from the Musashino University of fine art in Tokyo in 1972.