Yamada Emosaku

• Japanese: 山田右衛門作 (Yamada Emosaku)

Yamada Emosaku was a Japanese Christian, and a prominent figure in the Shimabara Rebellion. Though a member of the Christian rebel group, he worked as an informant for the Tokugawa shogunate, betraying his fellow rebels; following the Tokugawa victory, his life was spared as a result.

Emosaku is also known as a painter, trained by European missionaries. When the rebellion broke out, he is said to have hidden pigments and other painting materials, along with a number of incomplete or completed paintings, in a safe place in the mountains. Though his paintings at this time presumably included European and/or Christian subjects, following the defeat of the Shimabara Rebellion, he turned to producing images of Buddhist subjects, including those of Zen patriarchs, albeit still in European styles.

References

• Naoko Frances Hioki, "Visual Bilingualism and Mission Art," Japan Review 23 (2011), 32-33.