Yamasaki Shuji (1910 – 2001)
Yamasaki Shuji (1910–2001) was a Western-style (yoga) painter born in what is now Yasugi, Shimane Prefecture. His surname is also written 山﨑. While a student at Yonago Middle School in Tottori Prefecture, he attended the Matsue Western-style Painting Institute, where at a summer course in 1927 Saito Yori recognized his talent and urged him to become a painter; he went on to study under Saito. He also received guidance from Kano Kanrai, who came from the same district. In 1934 he became an instructor at Shimane Prefectural Hamada Girls' High School (later Hamada High School) and made Hamada his base from then on. After his first acceptance at the Teiten (Imperial Art Exhibition), he exhibited repeatedly at the Nitten (Japan Fine Arts Exhibition) and the Toko Exhibition. After the war he was chosen as the first president of the Sankokai, the San'in branch of the Tokokai art society. Through summer painting courses and his teaching at Hamada High School he trained many painters and led postwar Western-style painting in the Iwami region. From 1967 he traveled frequently to Europe to paint. His work depicts familiar people and Iwami landscapes in bright light and color. In 2000 he was named an honorary citizen of Hamada.