Shinichi Nomiya

Shinichi Nomiya (野宮 紳一, Nomiya Shinichi) is the art teacher at the Yamaku Academy. Years before the events of Katawa Shoujo, he was an artist himself, but retired from the profession to teach. He's in charge of the Art club. He sees Rin Tezuka as nothing short of a prodigy, and will always go out of his way to praise her work.

Personality

He is a generally laid-back sort of person, coupled with being flamboyantly dressed. Nomiya tries to get his students interested in the arts, though sometimes he gets rather carried away, in one instance going on an impassioned speech about what art is. He has a temper which, while not easy to set off, can cause him to go into a blind fury, shouting and swearing at anything that moves. He only exhibits this once, when Rin leaves her art exhibition in the middle of it.

To people he does not know, Nomiya is a fairly friendly person, but at the same time a bit condescending. He does not seem to get along with fellow Yamaku teacher Akio Mutou.

Hanging Up the Paintbrush

Nomiya is close friends with Sae Saionji, the owner of the 22nd Corner Art Gallery. Sae's husband was a fellow student of Nomiya's when they were in art school. Nomiya looked up to Mr. Saionji, and after the latter's passing, Nomiya gave up being an artist and began teaching it, in hopes of inspiring future artists.

Etymology

• The name Shinichi means "gentlemen" (紳) (shin) and "one" (一) (ichi).
• Shinichi's surname Nomiya means "field, wilderness" (野) (no) and "temple, shrine, palace" (宮) (miya).

Trivia

• Though unintentional, most of Nomiya's colours allude to primary colours (red and yellow tie), secondary colours (pink glasses and grey hair) or tertiary colours (salmon), something that is taught in regards to using paint and mixing them to create different colours.
• His glasses are rose coloured, referring to the phrase "rose coloured glasses", a phrase which refers to seeing things as far better than they actually are.