Hidetoshi Nagasawa was born in 1940 in Tonei, Manchuria, where his Japanese parents were located because his father was an army doctor. During the war, when Soviet forces attacked Manchuria, the Nagasawas fled back to Japan and settled near Tokyo. Hidetoshi went to high school, became interested in contemporary art, and discovered the Gutai Group, which he admired for their creativity and freedom of expression. In 1963, he graduated with degrees in architecture and interior design and went to work as an interior designer. In 1966, he set out for a journey to the West that took him across Asia: from Japan to Thailand by boat, and then by bicycle from Bangkok through Malaysia, Singapore, India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Persia, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, and Turkey to Greece and Italy…see the entire article in the print version of March’s Sculpture magazine.
