Nobuhiro Aihara

Quiet images of statues and fire, followed by animation on drawing paper sinking into the ocean.

Set in a cave imagined as an air-raid shelter, images of the surrounding trees are painted over directly on the film. Vivid colors intermixed with the sound of wartime radio communications and bombing create a harmonious composition of documentary and animation.

Begun in 8mm film, but completed in 16mm following the purchase of a new camera, this work continues with the psychedelic and anti-war themes, while moments provide the seeds of his later abstract exploration.

Circles printed on white paper. Animation frenzy as music becomes more erotic/erratic.

Following on from Shelter (1981), the setting is again an air-raid shelter. Close-up images of trees are dissected and reformed abstractly. The film culminates with images of elderly survivors of the war in another example of Aihara’s unique blending of documentary storytelling with abstract illustration.

Photos taken with pinhole camera, sky + clouds. Swirling animation like smoke against a black background.

Quiet images of statues and fire, followed by animation on drawing paper sinking into the ocean.

Set in a cave imagined as an air-raid shelter, images of the surrounding trees are painted over directly on the film. Vivid colors intermixed with the sound of wartime radio communications and bombing create a harmonious composition of documentary and animation.

Begun in 8mm film, but completed in 16mm following the purchase of a new camera, this work continues with the psychedelic and anti-war themes, while moments provide the seeds of his later abstract exploration.

Circles printed on white paper. Animation frenzy as music becomes more erotic/erratic.

Following on from Shelter (1981), the setting is again an air-raid shelter. Close-up images of trees are dissected and reformed abstractly. The film culminates with images of elderly survivors of the war in another example of Aihara’s unique blending of documentary storytelling with abstract illustration.

Photos taken with pinhole camera, sky + clouds. Swirling animation like smoke against a black background.

A turning point toward abstraction in Aihara’s career, this work was originally created for the “100 Feet Film Festival”.

A uniquely psychedelic animation of sordid and chaotic images.

Understood as an extension of Reckless Daydream (1974), abstract forms are transfigured. This version includes the intended processing of the blue hue and the animation’s timing, as instructed on the film’s original can.

The interactions of troops and prostitutes near the Naval Air Facility Atsugi (Kanagawa Prefecture), animated from a child’s perspective. Aihara’s works of this period often contain a documentary view of Japanese society at the time of his childhood.

An appropriation of an ukiyo-e print of Katsuhika Hokusai, this work incorporates multiple exposures and a range of animation techniques. Recently created from a faded print, this telecine copy restores the vivid red of the original version.

Hands / flicker / morphing animation suggests sexual organs in a frantic dance.

An animation that combines the motion of abstract lines and the motif of an apple.

Steps with shadows. An arm shadow in the landscape - concrete/grass/flowers. Flicker and a finger morphs into abstraction. A real hand appears above the animation, a zoom - drawings/hands/feet.

The human hand transformed through various animation techniques.

The scenery of the forest in Ogawa and the city of Kyoto and the abstract animation conceived from there are juxtaposed.

Animations overlaid on a rough grained photo of the Japanese mountain countryside. The physical painting of Japanese lacquer directly onto the film is incorporated into the animation.

A tense abstract animation with delicate line drawing. Contemporary musician Nakamura Shigenobu is in charge of the music used in the work.

The experimental animated short is a collaborative work between Keiichi Tanaami and Nobuhiro Aihara.

The experimental animated short is a collaborative work between Keiichi Tanaami and Nobuhiro Aihara.

Psychedelic animation that impresses with eyeballs and other motifs.

Regarded as a creative extension of Stone (1975), animation unfolds on drawing paper placed on a field and farm.

A black-and-white flicker film by Nobuhiro Aihara.

Originally titled Stone No. 2, this is considered a seminal work of Japanese independent animation. Stones, houses and the surrounding natural landscape transform continuously.

Vivid, chromatic animation.

A compendium of independent Japanese animation, featuring a wide range of experimental techniques from drawn animation to pixilation.

This is Aihara’s earliest surviving work. Motifs of psychedelic culture and the anti-war movement are directly scratched and painted on translucent film.

Images of the sea and clouds seen from the top of the mountain, the candles of the Tibetan temple, etc., and a chaotic psychedelic animation are juxtaposed.

A young boy named Takeshi steals an origami crane from his friend Nobu. To Takeshi's surprise the crane begins talking to him and offers to take him and his friends to an amusement park in space where children from many planets play. While riding an attraction designed to test the children's courage, Akiko is sucked into a black hole, leaving Takeshi and his friends to save her.

A young boy named Takeshi steals an origami crane from his friend Nobu. To Takeshi's surprise the crane begins talking to him and offers to take him and his friends to an amusement park in space where children from many planets play. While riding an attraction designed to test the children's courage, Akiko is sucked into a black hole, leaving Takeshi and his friends to save her.

A series of 16 "short stories" created by the creator's group Images Forum.

Project an abstract animation with an apple motif on various places of an old rural house and re-shoot it.

As with "SPIN", an abstract animation with delicate line drawings. There are single color and color versions. Nakamura Shigenobu is in charge of the music used in the work like the previous one.

Animation of a devil floating in air, Aihara created both a black and white and color version of this work by painting directly on the film.

A photograph of Aihara’s grandmother, overlapped with a tranquil documentary style animation of her life ending at her funeral scene.

Experimental short by Nobuhiro Aihara.

A documentary style animation of an apiarist at work in combination with scenes of a seaside village, overlapped with images of a boy trying to escape from fetters.

An abstract animation with a motif of a dragonfly, and a complex multi-exposure landscape of a field and a woman's naked body overlap.

This animated documentary is derived from footage shot at the site of the Sanrizuka struggle opposing the construction of Narita Airport. In addition to scenes evidently shot before and after the Nihon Genyasai Festival in Sanrizuka, it features time-lapse sequences showing abandoned houses and construction equipment leveling requisitioned land. “The footage was filmed in Narita. Because this land had been seized, I became conscious of the intensity of my own inner landscape. My time-lapse filming of the landscape was intended for use in an animation-as-documentary.”

A colorful psychedelic animation developed by drawing motifs of each part of the ear and body.