@article{oai:nichibun.repo.nii.ac.jp:00006158,
 author = {USPENSKY, Michail V.},
 journal = {Nichibunken Japan review : bulletin of the International Research Center for Japanese Studies},
 month = {Jan},
 note = {This article focuses on the life and creative work of Yamashita Rin (1857-1839) --the first Japanese icon --painter.  The figure of Yamashita Rin is unique but at the same time typical for the Meiji period the time of impetuous spread of western culture.  She first studied western painting under Antonio Fonfanesi (1818-82) but later, after being baptised (1878) by the Russian priest Nickolai, she was sent to a nunnery in Petersburg, Russia (1880), to study traditional Orthodox icon painting.  In addition to studies in the nunnery studio, Rin visited the Imperial Hermitage Museum, where she made several copies from West-European paintings.  Her work in the Hermitage was successful, but she experienced several difficulties in the course of her studies in the nunnery.  She became ill, and as a result, left Petersburg at the beginning of March 1883 and returned to Japan.
In Tokyo she settled in the Orthodox Mission on the Surugadai hill, where by March 1891 a new Cathedral (Nickorai-do) had been built.  Soon after, in connection with the expected visit to Japan of Nickolai--the Heir of the Russian throne, Archbishop Nickolai commissioned Rin to paint an icon of the "Resurrection" for the Russian Heir --the single work of Rin which exists in Russia (now in the collection of the Hermitage Museum).
This icon occupies a special place in Rin's oeuvre.  On the one hand it presents the pure Russian style of icon painting which she had been taught at the nunnery.  This may be due to the fact that up to the death of Archbishop Nicolai she lived by his side, receiving his advice which influenced her creative work.  On the other hand "Resurrection" is exceptional in that it possesses some special Japanese characteristics, mostly due to its mounting in a typically Japanese frame--the work of Takai Yasuji a prominent lacquerer of the day.
Yamashita Rin lived a long life painting many icons.  More than 100 of her works are known today.},
 pages = {37--50},
 title = {An Orthodox Icon by Yamashita Rin : the Japanese Painter of the Meiji Period},
 volume = {6},
 year = {1995}
}