Shuji Yamada was born 1939 in Hyogo Prefecture. After finishing his studies at Kuwasawa Design School, Yamada learned printing and photographic techniques for two years at a printing company. He traveled to Tokoname in Aichi Prefecture, which has a long-established tradition of ceramics, and the Seto Inland Sea, and eventually quit his work to establish himself as a graphic designer. During the 1970s, Yamada also worked as an architectural photographer. He traveled extensively the various regions of the Japanese archipelago, capturing villages and cityscapes caught between the old and the new, and engaging in a variety of media.

In 1982, Yamada decided to quit professional photography, and began to work as a tile maker in Tsui on Awaji Island in the Seto Inland Sea, an area with a tradition of tile making. While adapting an old craft to modern usages, he also took an interest into related local trades such as charcoal making (which is related to tile making in the sense that it is also an industry that depends on the utilization of fire). He has published the photo book Japanese Villages: 1969-79 (Sanseido, 1979) and From Cameraman to Tile Man (Chikuma Shobo, 1996).