Background
Shotaro Koyama was born in Nagaoka City, Niigata Prefecture. He was the eldest son of Yoshimoto Koyama, who is the big uncle of Ayano Koyama.
Shotaro Koyama was born in Nagaoka City, Niigata Prefecture. He was the eldest son of Yoshimoto Koyama, who is the big uncle of Ayano Koyama.
In 1871, Shotaro Koyama moved to Tokyo, and studied Western-style painting from Togai Kawakami at his private art school and from a French artist.
In 1874, Shotaro Koyama became a drawing master at the Army Officer Training Academy. When the Technical Art School (Kobu Bijutsu Gakko) was founded as the first government-established art school in 1876, he resigned from the mastership and entered it. The following year, Shotaro became an assistant teacher at the school and studied under Antonio Fontanesi, a professor at the school and a painter invited from Italy. However, when Fontanesi went back to his own country due to illness, Koyama was dissatisfied with his successor and resigned from the school. Shotaro Koyama was appointed as a professor at Tokyo Higher Normal School and judge of Imperial Art Institute's exhibitions.