Paul Horiuchi's 40-year career as an artist began by accident.

He was helping friends put up a sign near his auto-body shop in the Central Area of Seattle when he fell to the ground. Trying to keep the sign from breaking, he shattered his arm and wrist, said his son, Paul Horiuchi Jr.

"It was a blessing in disguise," his son said. "It incapacitated him for a year, so he studied to be a citizen and studied art."

The accident occurred in 1950 when Mr. Horiuchi was 45. In the following 40 years, his paintings and collages numbered over 3,000, winning him international awards and adoration from public and private collectors.

Mr. Horiuchi died in Seattle yesterday of complications arising from Alzheimer's disease. He was 93.

Born in Yamanashi, Japan, as Chikamasa Horiuchi on April 12, 1906, he displayed a talent for painting at a very young age. He won his first award - a Japanese national art prize - while he was in his teens.

In 1920, when he was 14 years old, his parents took him to Rock Springs, Wyo., where his father was working for the railroad. But his father died a year later of stomach cancer. His mother took his three young siblings back to Japan, leaving Chikamasa and his brother Tom behind.

The boys worked for the railroad until 1942, when they were fired after World War II broke out, Paul Horiuchi Jr. said.

By that time, Mr. Horiuchi had married Bernadette Suda, and converted to Catholicism. He adopted the name Paul in honor of Paul Cezanne and Pablo Picasso.

The war years were tough for the young couple, as they had two young sons and couldn't find work. By 1945, the family had moved to Spokane and Mr. Horiuchi was learning to do auto-body work. After the war, the family moved to Seattle, where he opened his own body-and-fender shop.

It was during that time that he made friends with Cyril Spinola, who came to the shop selling insurance.

"I noticed he was a good painter and that people would buy them if they could see them," Spinola said. Spinola took Mr. Horiuchi's paintings with him while he made insurance sales, and sold many of his paintings for him.

Mr. Horiuchi's began to enter local art fairs, winning awards at an early Bellevue Arts and Crafts Fair and the Puyallup Fair. He had his first solo show, which sold out, at the Zoe Dusanne Gallery.

Mr. Horiuchi became a master of collage painting, and he created several pieces of public art, including the the Mural Ampitheater for the 1962 World's Fair at Seattle Center. He also won many national and international honors.

He won an American Federation of Arts National Award in 1955 and he was honored by the Ford Foundation, Carnegie Art International and the Rome-New York Foundation. He received two honorary degrees and was given the Governor's Art Award of Special Commendation in 1989. The emperor of Japan awarded him the status of Sacred Treasure of Fourth Class, and in 1995, he received The Wing Luke Museum's Lifetime Achievement Award.

"He was a role model, he always had a sense of what he wanted to do," his son said. "He was always supportive of everybody. And for somebody born in Japan, you'd think he would be less open to change, but the artist in him made him realize change is what it's all about."

Mr. Horiuchi also is survived by his wife of 64 years, Bernadette Horiuchi of Issaquah; sons Jon of Snoqualmie, and Vincent of West Seattle; sisters Nagayo Horiuchi of Tokyo and Tsuriu Kamakura of Oishi, Japan; brother Katsumasa Horiuchi of Oishi, Japan; as well as seven grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.

Private services will be held later this week, and a public memorial will be announced. Memorial contributions may be made to the Keiro Nursing Home, 1601 E. Yesler Way, Seattle, 98122.