Yamashita, Rin

Born June 16, 1857 in Kasama in a poor samurai family.

Since early childhood, having a penchant for drawing, in 1872 she went to Tokyo to study painting. She lost her father early, with the permission of her mother, the girl began to engage in traditional Japanese art - engraving " ukiyo-e ", and one of her mentors was Toyohara Kunitika . A little later, the artist tried herself in European painting, which, after the Meiji bourgeois revolution , gained popularity and crowded the national Japanese schools.

In 1876, winning a difficult competition, she entered the School of Art at the College of Technology , where for the first time in Japan the training in European oil painting was introduced, and the teacher was a follower of the Barbizon school , Italian . During the training, she met with the Orthodox Christian Masako Yamamura, who in turn introduced Rin to the Russian missionary archimandrite Nikolai (Kasatkin) . In 1878, Rin was baptized with the name Irina, and one of her first works on a religious theme was a sketch for the cover of the magazine Seikyo Sympo (Orthodox Herald), which was published by the Orthodox mission in Tokyo.

In 1879, Archimandrite Nikolai, being in Russia, agreed on an internship for the Japanese Masako Yamamura in the icon painting workshop of the Novodevichy Resurrection Monastery in St. Petersburg, but since the girl got married, Rin Yamashita was sent to St. Petersburg. On the way to Russia, Rin visited the Hagia Sophia in Constantinople, and in Alexandria she first wore a European dress. She arrived in St. Petersburg in March 1881 and became the first Japanese woman to come to study in Russia.

Although the workshop of the Resurrection Monastery focused on writing in the "Greek style", among the teachers was also the rector of the Imperial Academy of Arts, Fyodor Ivanovich Jordan , who instilled in Rin respect for Western art. A young Japanese icon painter visited the Hermitage , making copies of the works of famous Western European artists, and the influence of F. I. Jordan affected her work until the end of her life.

In the spring of 1883, due to health problems, a conflict with the Mother Superior of the Resurrection Monastery Eustolia , who forbade the girl to attend the Hermitage, as well as an unsuccessful episode in her personal life, the artist went to Japan, where she settled in Tokyo during the Orthodox mission. The icon painter, who worked at the church until 1918, was supported by the head of the mission, Nikolai (Kasatkin), affectionately calling her "our icon painter Irina Petrovna." After the death of the bishop, Rin returned to her hometown of Kasama .

Died on January 26, 1939.

Currently, according to various estimates, from 100 to 250 works of Rin Yamashita are known. The artist’s icons are in the Cathedral of the Resurrection of Christ in Tokyo, as well as in other Orthodox churches located mainly in the northern part of Japan. Some of her works, and among them the best, died during the Tokyo earthquake of 1923 and during World War II .

In the collection of the State Hermitage Museum, the only “Resurrection of Christ” icon by Rin Yamashita, presented to the heir to the Russian throne Nikolai Alexandrovich in 1891 during his visit to Japan, has been preserved. The famous master Yasuji Takai for the icon made a wooden salary in the Japanese style. Initially, the icon was in the Emperor’s chambers in the Anichkov Palace , and after coronation it was transferred to the Winter Palace .

Until now, Japan remains highly interested in the work of the first Japanese icon painter, exhibitions of the artist’s works are held, books, articles, films, television programs are published.

• Kozhevnikova, I. Irina-Rin Yamashita, the first Japanese icon painter / I. Kozhevnikova // Japan today. - 2000. - No. 9. - S. 171-178.
• Suzuki, M. Orthodox Icon of Japan and Rin Yamashita / Mititaka Suzuki // Japan: 1993: Yearbook. - M. , 1994 .-- S. 20-23.
• Assumption, M. History of a single icon / M. Assumption // Japan today. - 1999. - No. 7. - S. 7.

• Samurai's daughter is a Japanese icon painter.