(b Kyoto, 27 March 1911). Japanese sculptor. He experimented with Constructivist sculpture in 1927 under the influence of such avant-garde sculptors as Tomoyoshi Murayama (1901–77). In 1928 he entered the sculpture department of the Higher Technical College in Tokyo; in 1929 he was accepted into the Nika-Ten exhibition and left college. At the Nikakai (Second Division Association) he studied under sculptor Yuzo Fujikawa (1883–1935). During World War II he stopped sculpting and learnt French and Latin. In 1950 he became a professor at the City College of Art in Kyoto, holding the post until 1974. From 1954 he began making sculptures from welded steel, creating such works as Five Squares and Five Rectangles (steel, 770 mm, 1955; Tokyo, Met. A. Mus.). In 1957 he exhibited in the fourth São Paulo Biennale. In 1963 he was awarded the sixth Takamura Kotaro prize. In the same year an exhibition of his work was held at the Museum of Modern Art in Kamakura. In 1967 he exhibited at the ninth International Sculpture Biennale at Antwerp (Openluchtmus. Beeldhouwkst Middelheim). In the same year he exhibited Mimichan Winking (steel, other, h. 400 mm, 1967; Kamakura, Kanagawa Prefect. Mus. Mod. A.) at the second Gendai Nihon Chokoku Ten (Contemporary Sculpture Exhibition, Japan) in Ube, Yamaguchi Prefecture. This work characterizes the humorous nature of Horiuchi’s work. In 1969 he received the Grand Prize at the first Gendai Kokusai Chokoku Ten (International exhibition of contemporary sculpture) at the Hakone Open-Air Museum, Hakone-machi. Thereafter he produced many sculptures of sliced spheres and fused cubes that could be described as intellectual brain teasers, for example Ways to Slice a Sphere (bronze, h. 450 mm, 1970; Tokyo, N. Mus. Mod. A.) and Zigzag Cubes (stainless steel, h. 1.06 m, 1974; Tochigi, Prefect. Mus. F.A.).