Yamada Shinzan

• Japanese: 山田 真山 (Yamada Shinzan)

Yamada Shinzan was an Okinawan Nihonga painter who has been cited as representative of a late Meiji period generation of Okinawan artists trained in mainland Japan (rather than coming out of the Ryukyu Kingdom court painter tradition). Shinzan is known in particular for a 1928 painting produced for the Meiji Memorial Picture Gallery, depicting a Ryukyuan mission arriving back in Naha Harbor in 1873 after being informed in Tokyo of the abolition of their kingdom. It is the only work in the Gallery by an Okinawan artist.

Born in Naha the fifth son of an aristocratic Shuri family, Shinzan was encouraged from a young age by his mother to travel to mainland Japan. There, he received a strongly ultra-nationalist education, instilling in him strongly pro-Japanese and pro-imperial attitudes. He was also told that he was descended from Yoshida Kenkô.

Shinzan began his artistic career as a sculptor. However, his painting of Prince Ie's mission returning to Naha in 1873 led to him becoming more well-known as a painter. This was his first work depicting a Ryukyuan subject.

Following the end of World War II, Yamada became one of a number of artists hired by the Occupation government to produce paintings and sculptures of US war heroes.

References

• Gallery labels, Meiji Memorial Picture Gallery.
• Junko Kobayashi, "The Demise of Ryukyuan Painting," Okinawan Art in its Regional Context symposium, University of East Anglia, Norwich, 10 Oct 2019.