 Kiyoshi Yamashita on Ebisubashi Bridge, 1955 | Sometimes referred to as the Japanese Van Gogh, Kiyoshi Yamashita was an outsider artist who gained fame for his wanderings through Japan. During his travels he wore only a vest, which gained him the nickname The Naked General. As a 3 year-old child Yamashita suffered from an abdominal disorder which left him with brain damage. Spending time in institutions he discovered a skill for chigiri-e, a type of Japanese art involving sticking tiny pieces of coloured paper to a canvas. |
Confined to life in an institution eventually he ran away in 1940, mainly to avoid the physical examination for recruitment into the Japanese Army. This was when he started his wanderings through Japan, which lasted into the 1950s. Eventually The system caught up with him in 1944, he was examined and found incapable of military service. The story of this period in his life was written in the Wandering Diary (1956). The famous image of Yamashita on Ebisubashi Bridge was taken during this period. Yamashita became a well known cultural figure in Japan. In 1958 a movie was made based on his life called The Naked General (裸の大将), and from 1980 to 1997 there was a popular TV series based on him.
| Yamashita had an eidetic memory, which meant that he could recreated the entire scenes from memory after he returned home from his travels. Though he experimented with drawings, watercolor, and oil paintings, Yamashita made his mark with the Japanese art chigiri-e. Producing hundreds of works of art, that over the years have toured exhibitions across both Japan and Europe. Sadly Yamashita died in 1971 from a cerebral haemorrhage aged only 49 years old. However his legacy lives on as one of Japan's most famous outsider artists. |  Mount Fuji By Kiyoshi Yamashita. (Click to enlarge.) |
