SETODA, Hiroshima Pref. -- A museum dedicated to one of Japan's most prominent artists, Ikuo Hirayama, traces the artistic growth of the famous native and his travels throughout the world.

The town of Setoda, located on Ikuchishima island, was the birthplace and boyhood home of Hirayama. The museum opened in spring 1997 and includes thousands of drawings, sketches and art objects, many of which he made as an elementary school student.

Hirayama first gained international recognition in the early 1960s after graduating from what was then the Tokyo Art School. A work called "Bukkyo Denrai" ("Transmission of Buddhism") traces the path taken by seventh-century Chinese monk Xuan Zang, who traveled the ancient Silk Road bringing sutras to Japan. It was the first of many paintings with Buddhist themes.

In "Bukkyo Denrai" and in many of his subsequent works, Hirayama's underlying message is peace. A child when the atomic bomb fell on Hiroshima, he was close enough to the city to be exposed to the radioactive fallout.

For years afterward, he suffered occasional bouts of ill health. By the time "Bukkyo Denrai" was completed in 1959, Hirayama was exhausted due to a low white blood cell count.

But he recovered, and in 1962, the 32-year-old Hirayama received a UNESCO fellowship that took him to Europe. From there he headed east, across the Silk Road, stopping along the way in Turkey, where he reproduced murals from the walls of a cave.

This was the first work in what would become a series of paintings known as the Silk Road series and the beginning of a life-long interest in Asia's cultural heritage.

Since the mid-1960s, Hirayama has visited the Middle East, Central Asia, India and China 130 times, and has traveled about 350,000 km, about the same distance traveled by Xuan Zang.

"(Hirayama's) travels were extensive, not only along the Silk Road, but also in Europe, Africa and the South Pacific," said Yoshio Hirayama, the museum's curator and the artist's younger brother. On his trips to the U.S., he visited art museums in Washington D.C., New York and Boston and the Enola Gay exhibit at the Smithsonian Institution.

"Although many of his paintings reflect a passion for foreign lands, many also capture the natural beauty of the Seto Inland Sea area where he grew up," the younger Hirayama said.

His paintings of the local area include a series of recent drawings done to commemorate the seven bridges that connect the islands in the Inland Sea to Shikoku and Honshu.

There are also drawings that depict local neighborhood scenes and the beauty of the bays and coves that surround Ikuchishima island.

In addition to his artistic accomplishments, Hirayama has taken an active interest in preserving the world's, and Japan's, cultural heritage.

In 1980, Yakushiji Temple in Nara invited Hirayama to paint a large-scale mural depicting the travels of Xuan Zang. The mural, 20 years in the making, is due to be completed in December 2000.

A wide range of artistic styles from East and West are easily recognizable in all of Hirayama's works.

In many of the later works at the museum, painted in the 1970s and 1980s, Western and Near Eastern themes are brought to life with brilliant, fiery colors and fine detail, and traditional Chinese and Japanese influences are obvious.

The museum includes a good number of the "oshitazu," or full-scale blueprints, that formed the basis for many of Hirayama's works. The oshitazu is first traced on a separate piece of paper, then used as a guide for the final work.

The museum also contains photographs of works that are on display elsewhere.

Although painting remains his first love, in more recent years, Hirayama has served in a number of different positions, including president of the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music, UNESCO goodwill ambassador and head of the Japan-China Friendship Association.

He continues to speak out on preserving the world's cultural heritage. Hirayama has also been involved in a number of efforts to help preserve the ruins of Angkor Wat in Cambodia, the Dunhuang cave temples in Cambodia and the ancient walls of Nanjing.

The museum contains a good amount of information on Hirayama's life and adds personal items, such as letters and postcards to his family during his extensive travels abroad. But it never strays from its main theme: Hirayama as an artist.

"The mission of this museum is to explain who Ikuo Hirayama is and how he developed as an artist," Yoshio Hirayama said. "It is also, through his travels around the world, an attempt to show how he became passionately involved with preserving the world's cultural and artistic heritage. We hope the museum will serve as a reminder, especially to younger generations, of the importance of the world's diversity of cultures." (E.J.)