KBC 17: Can You Answer This Rs 7 Crore Question Which 'Crorepati' Aditya Kumar Could Not

Aditya Kumar from Uttarakhand became the first contestant of TV show Kaun Banega Crorepati 17 to win Rs 1 crore on Wednesday. He confidently answered a series of challenging questions to reach the last round involving prize money worth Rs 7 crore. 

To win this amount, he was asked the final question: "Which Japanese artist visited India in the 1930s and painted a celebrated series depicting the Taj Mahal, the Sanchi Stupa, and the Ellora Caves?"

Unsure of the correct answer, Aditya chose to quit the show with the money he had already won.

Before exiting, he guessed Hiroshi Nakajima as the answer, which was incorrect. The correct answer was Hiroshi Yoshida. Aditya walked away with Rs 1 crore and a car, earning applause from veteran actor and show host Amitabh Bachchan and the audience for his gameplay.

The answer, for the Rs 7 crore prize, which Kumar couldn't be sure of, was about the famous Japanese painter Hiroshi Yoshida. The renowned 20th-century painter and woodblock printmaker was a leading figure of the shin-hanga art movement. 

Celebrated for his landscape prints, he travelled extensively and made paintings of landmarks around the world. Some of these include the Taj Mahal, the Swiss Alps and the Grand Canyon. These are made in traditional Japanese style and are praised for their serene, detailed aesthetic and cross-cultural artistic expression.

At 44, Hiroshi Yoshida began publishing drawings as woodblock prints and released his first collection at 49. In his work, he sought to blend European realism with traditional Japanese woodblock techniques, creating a distinctive artistic style, according to the Japanese MOA Museum of Art. He was seen as an artist who was deeply connected to nature.

Born in 1876 in the city of Kurume, Fukuoka, he moved to Fukuoka city in 1887 to attend a public school. During his schooling, an art teacher, Yoshida Kasaburo, adopted him after seeing his aptitude for art. He later studied Western-style painting in Kyoto and Tokyo. At 23, he travelled to North America and gained success by selling artworks at the Detroit Institute of Arts and other galleries. He then travelled across Europe and returned to Japan two years later. 

"Back in Japan, he served as a judge at various major exhibitions. Thus, he became a significant figure in the development of modern Western paintings in Japan," the museum states on its website.

At 44, Yoshida met art publisher Watanabe Shozaburo and published his first woodblock print, titled ‘The Sacred Garden in Meiji Shrine’. In 1923, he travelled to the US again following the Great Kanto earthquake. 

There, he realised the popularity of Japanese woodblock prints and worked towards preserving this traditional art technique.