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.