Yamada started his artistic career by working at Shuji Terayama's theatre company, Tenjousajiki.
In 1974, he was appointed as an artistic crew in Terayama's feature-film, Denen ni Shisu (Pastoral: To Die in the Country).
Since 1991, La Camera in Tokyo has produced regular duo-screenings of his films and the works by Yamazaki Mikio.
In addition to screenings in Japan, Yamada's experimental art works have been featured at Cannes,[1] Oberhausen,[2] Stockholm and other film festivals.
His feature-films are Anmonaito no sasayaki wo kiita (I've heard the ammonite's murmur:1992), Jouhatsu Tabinikki (The Soul Odyssey: 2003) based on the essay by Yoshiharu Tsuge, and Shutorumu unto Doranku (Sturm und Drang: 2014).