Chieko studied of Ibero-American culture and Spanish in Jyochi (Sophia) University in Tokyo, where she was much interested in the ancient Andean textiles. In 1973, she realized her first journey to South America, and still continues her research. 

During 1984 ~ 2009 she visited  Ecuador, Peru, Chile, Bolivia, Paraguay, Argentina, Spain, Italia, Portugal and Morocco. Researching in different areas, she tried to take wider and deeper observation. Her continuous experiments are also needed to make sure how to make those fragments. At the same time, she does exhibitions and lecture-workshops at the universities, museums and other individual places.

In 2007 up to 2009, she had a local studio in Valparaiso, Chile, where organized varied workshops. It is wonderful to share with the different way of thinking between other countries. We can receive mutually more understanding and creativity inspired from each other's variety of cultures.

In 2003, Chieko Aihara published 2 books: "Sprang" and "Sprang Samples and Structural Figures".  "Sprang"  is  a  manual text, written in Japanese with detailed information. The other is with over 100 pictures and 25 structural diagrams. The author plans an extra digest version in English in future, which will be useful for international readers.  Further information, please refer to the page Books.