About the artist:

Noboru Yamashita was born on June (July) 3, 1929, in Kofu City, Yamanashi Prefecture, Japan. He was the 5th of 6 children born to Toyotaro and Masuyo Yamashita. As a youngster, he was gifted academically and artistically. After the war, gave boat tours on the Five Lakes of Mt. Fuji. But later, he sold that business and ventured on to Tokyo to pursue his dream of becoming an artist. He successfully managed an art gallery, held one man art shows and won various art competitions. With his earnings, he traveled by ship on the Ruys Maru, through the Straits of Malacca, Malaysia and Cape Town, South Africa before reaching Sao Paolo, Brazil, where he practiced 2 years as an artist.

In the 1960s Noboru arrived in San Francisco and travelled cross country on a Greyhound bus to his final destination: New York City! New York was bustling with artists at that time. He was an artist, jeweler as well as an antiques dealer. In 1964, he met Kazuyo Kogure, who was working as an accountant as part of the Japanese Pavilion of the New York World’s Fair in Queens. They married in 1968 and later had 3 children, Haruka, Kasumi and Tamao. One of the highlights of his artistic career was to gain a commission to paint rose paintings for J. Walter Thompson advertising company in 1973. Noboru’s artistic subjects changed over the decades, from bold abstract art, American landscapes, New York cityscapes, scenes from literature, and pop art portraits, to unusual surrealism. His favorite medium was always abstract oil painting on canvas.

In 1978, Noboru and Kazuyo moved their young family from Riverdale to what became their home for 40 years in Yonkers. In 1998, Noboru and Kazuyo opened their home to start the New York Minshuku. For more than 20 years, they enjoyed hosting Japanese guests who similarly came to New York City to pursue their own dreams whether it was for the arts, education, sightseeing, or business.

Noboru Yamashita passed away on April 10, 2019 in Yonkers. He is survived by his dedicated wife of 51 years, Kazuyo Yamashita, their children Haruka Yamashita in Dublin, CA; Kasumi Yamashita in Seattle, WA; and Tamao Yamashita in Tokyo, Japan; as well as and his four grandchildren, Sienna and Jonah Mack, Naina Murali, and Cena Yamashita. He is interred at Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx, New York.