Koyama Shōtarō (Japanese:小山正太郎; 15 February 1857, Nagaoka - 7 January 1916,

Tokyo Tokyo, officially the Tokyo Metropolis, is the capital of Japan, capital and List of cities in Japan, most populous city in Japan. With a population of over 14 million in the city proper in 2023, it is List of largest cities, one of the most ...

) was a Japanese painter. He was one of the first to work in the ''

yōga is a style of artistic painting in Japan, typically of Japanese subjects, themes, or landscapes, but using Western (European) artistic conventions, techniques, and materials. The term was coined in the Meiji period (1868–1912) to distingui ...

'' style.

Life and work

His father was an

acupuncturist Acupuncture is a form of alternative medicine and a component of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) in which thin needles are inserted into the body. Acupuncture is a pseudoscience; the theories and practices of TCM are not based on scientifi ...

. He completed his primary education at the British School in Tokyo. His began his artistic education at a private school in Tokyo operated by

Kawakami Tōgai Kawakami Tōgai, originally Hiroshi (Japanese:川上冬崖; 22 July 1828, Nagano Prefecture - 3 May 1881, Atami) was a Japanese painter; one of the first to work in the yōga (Western) style. Life and work His birth name was Yamagishi Mannoj ...

, then took lessons at the Technical Fine Arts School (now the

Tokyo Institute of Technology The Tokyo Institute of Technology () was a public university in Meguro, Tokyo, Japan. It merged with Tokyo Medical and Dental University to form the Institute of Science Tokyo on 1 October 2024. The Tokyo Institute of Technology was a De ...

), operated by the Ministry of Industry. There, he came under the influence of the Italian artist,

Antonio Fontanesi Antonio Fontanesi (23 February 1818 – 17 April 1882) was an Italian painter who lived in Meiji period Japan between 1876 and 1878. He introduced European oil painting techniques to Japan, and exerted a significant role in the development of mo ...

, head of the painting classes, who was instrumental in introducing Western style painting to Japan. During his military service, he also studied watercolor painting with the French artist, under the auspices of the Ministry of the Army. Two of his younger brothers pursued military careers. When Fontanesi returned to Italy in 1878, Koyama was dissatisfied with his replacement and left the school. Together with some friends, he founded the Association of the Eleventh (十一次会), so called because that was the eleventh year of the

Meiji era The was an Japanese era name, era of History of Japan, Japanese history that extended from October 23, 1868, to July 30, 1912. The Meiji era was the first half of the Empire of Japan, when the Japanese people moved from being an isolated feu ...

. In 1889, together with

Asai Chū was a Japanese painter, noted for his pioneering work in developing the ''yōga'' (Western-style) art movement in late 19th century and early twentieth-century Japanese painting. Biography Asai was born to an ex-samurai class household in Sak ...

, Matsuoka Hisashi and others, he created the . Meanwhile, he had opened his own painting school in the Hongō district of Tokyo, that he called Fudō-sha (不同社; roughly, "diversity"). Many famous ''yōga'' style painters were among his students there, including Nakamura Fusetsu, Yoshida Hiroshi, Mitsutani Kunishirō, Aoki Shigeru and Kanokogi Takeshirō. He also taught at

Tokyo High School Tokyo High School (東京高等学校 ''Tōkyō Kōtōgakkō'') is an independent high school in Ōta, Tokyo, Ōta, Tokyo, Japan. It was founded in 1872 in what is now Ueno, Tokyo, Ueno district of Taitō, Tokyo, Taitō under the name Ueno-juku. ...

. During the

First Sino-Japanese War The First Sino-Japanese War (25 July 189417 April 1895), or the First China–Japan War, was a conflict between the Qing dynasty of China and the Empire of Japan primarily over influence in Joseon, Korea. In Chinese it is commonly known as th ...

, from 1894 to 1895, he worked as a

war artist A war artist is an artist either commissioned by a government or publication, or self-motivated, to document first-hand experience of war in any form of illustrative or depictive record.Imperial War Museum (IWM)header phrase, "war shapes lives" ...

. In 1900, thanks to financial support from the Ministry of Education, he was able to visit Paris and London. His body of work was rather small and received little exposure. He worked in a modified

academic An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of tertiary education. The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy, founded approximately 386 BC at Akademia, a sanctuary of Athena, the go ...

style and favored dark shades of brown.

Sources

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Koyama, Shotaro 1857 births 1916 deaths 19th-century Japanese painters Yōga painters People from Nagaoka, Niigata 19th-century male artists 20th-century Japanese painters 20th-century Japanese male artists