--- title: What Is Mōrōtai? Hishida Shunsō and the Hazy Style of Nihonga Without Outlines description: Mōrōtai, the hazy style of Yokoyama Taikan and Hishida Shunsō, painted nihonga without outlines. Its name, Shunsō's paintings, and what ink painters can learn. image: https://www.sumieart.art/hubfs/featured_1200x630.jpg --- [Ensō円 相](https://www.sumieart.art/) [Article](https://www.sumieart.art/en/blog?hsLang=en) [About](https://www.sumieart.art/en/about?hsLang=en) [JA](https://www.sumieart.art/blog/hishida-shunso-moroutai) / [EN](https://www.sumieart.art/en/blog/hishida-shunso-morotai) [Article](https://www.sumieart.art/en/blog) — Suiboku # What Is Mōrōtai? Hishida Shunsō and the Hazy Style of Nihonga Without Outlines Mōrōtai, the hazy style of Yokoyama Taikan and Hishida Shunsō, painted nihonga without outlines. Its name, Shunsō's paintings, and what ink painters can learn. 2026.10.04 ![Hishida Shunsō, Twilight, detail: bare trees stand against the soft gradations of an evening sky, with a single crow perched on a branch](https://www.sumieart.art/hubfs/featured_1200x630.jpg) Hishida Shunsō, Twilight, detail: bare trees stand against the soft gradations of an evening sky, with a single crow perched on a branch Mōrōtai (朦朧体) is a way of painting nihonga without outlines, begun in the late Meiji period by Yokoyama Taikan and Hishida Shunsō. In place of lines, it used soft gradations of colour to convey air and light. At the time, its hazy, edgeless pictures were criticised, and the name mōrōtai, often translated as "the hazy style", grew out of that criticism. This article follows Hishida Shunsō's paintings in order, from the years when he still drew in line, through mōrōtai, to what came after. The idea of painting without outlines, through gradation and tone, also speaks to ink painting. What this article covers: - What mōrōtai is, and why it was given that name - Who Hishida Shunsō was - How his work changed, from line drawing to mōrōtai and on to his last years - What ink painters can take from mōrōtai (Image at the top of this article: Hishida Shunsō, Twilight, detail, Kyoto National Museum / Source: [ColBase](https://colbase.nich.go.jp/collection_items/kyohaku/A%E7%94%B2319?locale=en). Created by cropping a ColBase image.) ## What Is Mōrōtai? | Nihonga Painted Without Outlines, in Gradations of Colour Japanese dictionaries collected on [Kotobank](https://kotobank.jp/word/%E6%9C%A6%E6%9C%A7%E4%BD%93-645080) (in Japanese) explain mōrōtai like this: - Digital Daijisen: a technique of Japanese-style painting tried in the latter half of the Meiji period by Yokoyama Taikan, Hishida Shunsō and others, in which outlines are blurred - Nihon Kokugo Daijiten, the large dictionary of the Japanese language: in particular, the method of painting without lines that Yokoyama Taikan and Hishida Shunsō began in the late Meiji period at the urging of Okakura Tenshin Painting without lines (bossen byōhō, also read mossen) simply means not drawing outlines. According to the Aichi Prefectural Museum of Art, in its notes on one of Shunsō's paintings, mōrōtai relies heavily on gradations of colour, which suited the spreading of light and moist air. Scenes of morning and evening, and of the waterside, were favourite subjects. ### Where the name came from | A term of criticism According to the Nihon Kokugo Daijiten, mōrōtai originally referred to poems whose meaning is unclear, or to pictures whose outlines are unclear. The Sekai Dai Hyakka Jiten encyclopedia records that the new style, which did without outlines and put colour first, met with the unflattering label mōrōtai. The Tokyo Fuji Art Museum's biography of Shunsō likewise says that when he showed works painted without lines, the public mocked them as mōrōtai. Today the word is a term of art history, but it began as criticism. ### What mōrōtai shares with mokkotsu In making form without outlines, mōrōtai has something in common with mokkotsu, the boneless technique of East Asian painting. One museum description, the Fukui Fine Arts Museum's note on Yokoyama Taikan's [A Cuckoo](https://online.bunka.go.jp/heritages/detail/592116) (in Japanese), describes the mōrōtai manner as a boneless method. Mokkotsu, however, is a technique used in China since early times, while mōrōtai was a new experiment in Meiji-era nihonga. Rather than treating them as the same thing, it helps to see them as sharing an idea. For mokkotsu itself, see [What Is Mokkotsu?](https://www.sumieart.art/en/blog/mokkotsu-boneless-painting-technique). ## Who Was Hishida Shunsō? | A Meiji Painter Who Died Young Here is a short account of Shunsō's life, based on the Tokyo Fuji Art Museum's biography. ### From the Tokyo Fine Arts School to the Japan Art Institute Hishida Shunsō was born in Nagano in 1874. As a teenager he went to Tokyo and entered the Tokyo Fine Arts School. His graduation work, Widow and Orphan (University Art Museum, Tokyo University of the Arts), received the highest marks. In 1898, when a movement arose to oust Okakura Tenshin, Shunsō left the school with Yokoyama Taikan and others and took part in founding the Japan Art Institute (Nihon Bijutsuin). It was after this that he began to show works painted without lines. ### India, America, Europe, and Izura From 1903, over about two years, he travelled with Taikan through India, the United States and Europe, holding exhibitions of their work along the way. According to the Fukui Fine Arts Museum, this manner, mocked as mōrōtai and unpopular among Japanese viewers who valued line drawing, was well received at the exhibitions they held in the United States, and many works sold. Back in Japan, Shunsō moved to Izura in Ibaraki Prefecture when the Japan Art Institute relocated there. In 1908 an eye disease brought him back to Tokyo. After a temporary recovery, he showed Fallen Leaves and Black Cat at the Bunten, the Ministry of Education Fine Arts Exhibition. He died on 16 September 1911, a few days before his 37th birthday. ## When He Still Drew in Line | Mahākāśyapa Smiling at the Lotus Flower (1897) ![Hishida Shunsō, Mahākāśyapa Smiling at the Lotus Flower: the Buddha, seated on a pedestal at the centre, holds a small flower in his right hand, with disciples lined up on either side](https://www.sumieart.art/hs-fs/hubfs/misho_tnm_3000x1591.jpg?width=3000&height=1591&name=misho_tnm_3000x1591.jpg) (Figure: Hishida Shunsō, Mahākāśyapa Smiling at the Lotus Flower, 1897, colour on silk, Tokyo National Museum / Source: [ColBase](https://colbase.nich.go.jp/collection_items/tnm/A-163?locale=en)) Mahākāśyapa Smiling at the Lotus Flower dates from 1897, before the Japan Art Institute was founded. It depicts the story of the Buddha holding up a flower, when only his disciple Mahākāśyapa understood its meaning and smiled: the teaching passed from heart to heart, from master to disciple. According to ColBase, the young Shunsō, influenced by Okakura Tenshin's view of the world, painted this solemn scene in a traditional technique centred on line drawing. The Buddha sits on a pedestal holding a small flower in his right hand, with his disciples lined up on either side. The figures are firmly drawn in outline. Set beside the mōrōtai paintings, the difference is easy to see. ## Mōrōtai in His Paintings | Going Back Home After Fishing, and Twilight ### Going Back Home After Fishing (1901) | Faint lines for the figures, none for water and sky ![Hishida Shunsō, Going Back Home After Fishing: three figures head home along the waterside at dusk after fishing. The water and the reeds are painted in gradations of colour without outlines](https://www.sumieart.art/hs-fs/hubfs/kigyo_tfam_950x2208.jpg?width=301&height=699&name=kigyo_tfam_950x2208.jpg) (Figure: Hishida Shunsō, Going Back Home After Fishing, 1901, colour on silk, hanging scroll, Tokyo Fuji Art Museum Collection / Included in the [Tokyo Fuji Art Museum Collection Database](https://www.fujibi.or.jp/en/collection/artwork/06533/)) Under a sky glowing red at dusk, three figures head home after a day's fishing. According to the Tokyo Fuji Art Museum, the figures in the foreground are drawn with faint outlines, but no outlines can be found in the water, the reeds or the sky. The water, reflecting the colour of the sky, creates the stillness of evening. The museum says that Shunsō began to experiment with painting without lines around the year before this work, and that he showed a particular interest in waterside subjects, which suited the method. ### Also worth seeing: Twilight | Bare trees and a crow against the evening sky ![Hishida Shunsō, Twilight: bare trees stand in a row against an evening sky and waterside, with a single crow perched on a branch](https://www.sumieart.art/hs-fs/hubfs/boshokuzu_kyohaku_1743x3000.jpg?width=318&height=547&name=boshokuzu_kyohaku_1743x3000.jpg) (Figure: Hishida Shunsō, Twilight, Meiji period, Kyoto National Museum / Source: [ColBase](https://colbase.nich.go.jp/collection_items/kyohaku/A%E7%94%B2319?locale=en)) The Kyoto National Museum's Twilight shows an evening sky and a waterside in soft gradations of colour, with a row of bare trees and a single crow perched on a branch. ColBase gives no detailed date or description, and does not say whether it is a mōrōtai work, so here we describe only what can be seen in the picture. Beyond the stand of trees, with their thin, overlapping branches, the colour of the sky spreads without any edge. It is a picture to enjoy alongside the morning, evening and waterside scenes that mōrōtai is said to have favoured, asking how Shunsō conveyed the air of dusk. ## A Weakness, a Response, and the Last Years | Landscape in Autumn, Waterfalls in Spring and Autumn and His Best-Known Works ### Landscape in Autumn (c. 1908) | Rock faces in fine brushwork and ink tones ![Hishida Shunsō, Landscape in Autumn: a waterfall drops from a rock face among trees in autumn colour, and the surface of the plunge pool is painted in gradations](https://www.sumieart.art/hs-fs/hubfs/koyo_sansui_apmoa_507x1200.jpg?width=250&height=592&name=koyo_sansui_apmoa_507x1200.jpg) (Figure: Hishida Shunsō, Landscape in Autumn, c. 1908, colour on silk, Aichi Prefectural Museum of Art / [Collection database](https://jmapps.ne.jp/apmoa2/det.html?data_id=9982)) Mōrōtai, with its heavy use of gradation, suited air and light, but it was less able to convey the solidity and presence of large rocks. According to the Aichi Prefectural Museum of Art, Shunsō began to try dot-like, stippled brushwork to make up for this weakness, and Landscape in Autumn is a representative example. The rippling surface of the plunge pool is painted in the gradations of mōrōtai, while the great rock face down which the waterfall drops is built up with fine brushwork and layered tones of ink to give it volume. Around it, trees in autumn colour are carefully painted. Seen as a work that uses brushwork and ink tone for what gradation alone could not do, it shows Shunsō's ingenuity clearly. ### Waterfalls in Spring and Autumn (1909) | Waterfalls without outlines, and clear colour ![Hishida Shunsō, Waterfalls in Spring and Autumn, the left and right scrolls side by side: red maples on the left and cherry blossoms on the right, each with a single waterfall dropping down the rocks. The falling water has no outlines](https://www.sumieart.art/hs-fs/hubfs/shunju-12.jpg?width=521&height=675&name=shunju-12.jpg) (Figure: Hishida Shunsō, Waterfalls in Spring and Autumn, 1909, colour on silk, pair of hanging scrolls, Tokyo Fuji Art Museum Collection. Left: the left scroll (maples); right: the right scroll (cherry) / Included in the [Tokyo Fuji Art Museum Collection Database](https://www.fujibi.or.jp/en/collection/artwork/06620/)) Waterfalls in Spring and Autumn is a pair of hanging scrolls: cherry blossoms in full bloom on the right scroll and maples shedding their leaves on the left, each with a single waterfall dropping down the rocks. According to the Tokyo Fuji Art Museum, the falling water is painted without outlines, showing what Shunsō achieved with the method once mocked as mōrōtai. At the same time, the museum says, the clear colours of the cherry and maples, and the block-like, geometric treatment of the rocks, show his efforts at that time to move beyond painting without lines. It is one of his last works, painted during a short recovery after the onset of his eye disease. ### His best-known works: Fallen Leaves and Black Cat Shunsō's best-known works are Fallen Leaves and Black Cat. Both were shown at the Bunten. | Work | Year | Format and medium | Collection | Designation | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Fallen Leaves | 1909 | Pair of six-panel folding screens; colour on paper | Eisei Bunko Museum | Important Cultural Property | | Black Cat | 1910 | Hanging scroll; colour on silk | Eisei Bunko Museum | Important Cultural Property | This article does not include images of these two works. Their details can be checked on Cultural Heritage Online: [Fallen Leaves](https://online.bunka.go.jp/db/heritages/detail/199100) and [Black Cat](https://online.bunka.go.jp/db/heritages/detail/151641) (both in Japanese). ## Shunsō in Ink, and Trying the Idea in Sumi-e ### Niwatori-zu | A chicken in broad strokes of ink ![Hishida Shunsō, painting of a chicken: a single bird low in a tall, narrow picture, its black body set down with a broad brush of ink and its comb touched with pale colour](https://www.sumieart.art/hs-fs/hubfs/niwatori_tnm_775x3000.jpg?width=247&height=956&name=niwatori_tnm_775x3000.jpg) (Figure: Hishida Shunsō, painting of a chicken (Niwatori-zu), hanging scroll, light colour on paper, Tokyo National Museum / Source: [ColBase](https://colbase.nich.go.jp/collection_items/tnm/A-1318) (in Japanese)) The Tokyo National Museum's painting of a chicken, Niwatori-zu (鶏図), shows a single bird low in a tall, narrow picture. Its black body is set down with a broad brush of ink, and its comb is touched with pale colour. ColBase gives no date or description, so here we describe only what can be seen. A mass of ink that keeps the marks of the brush sits within a wide empty space, which makes it a picture ink painters can feel close to. ### Depth through tone, not outline | A demonstration by Tohun Kobayashi The works we have looked at, Going Back Home After Fishing, Landscape in Autumn and Waterfalls in Spring and Autumn, are all nihonga painted in colour on silk. Ink painting in monochrome ink differs from them in both materials and method. Even so, the idea of conveying air and depth through gradation and tone, without relying on outlines, carries over to ink painting. As an example of trying it in ink, here is a demonstration by Tohun Kobayashi, published on the Kokusai Bokuyukai channel, in which he paints a pine grove in ink alone on a shikishi board. He begins each pine with its clusters of needles and runs the trunk through afterwards, painting the trees behind in pale ink and the pines in front in dark ink. Watch how depth emerges from nothing more than the order of painting and the difference in ink tone. This is not a demonstration of mōrōtai, but an example of using tone to create depth in ink painting. For practising ink tones, see our [sumi-e brushwork practice drills](https://www.sumieart.art/en/blog/sumi-e-brushwork-practice-drills). ## In Closing | Key Points, and Where to See the Works ### Key points - Mōrōtai is a way of painting nihonga without outlines, begun in the late Meiji period by Yokoyama Taikan and Hishida Shunsō. The name was at first a criticism. - Gradations of colour suited air and light, and scenes of morning, evening and the waterside were favourite subjects. - Shunsō moved from the line drawing of Mahākāśyapa Smiling at the Lotus Flower to the mōrōtai of Going Back Home After Fishing. In Landscape in Autumn he used brushwork and ink tone to give rocks the solidity that gradation lacked, and in his last years, in Waterfalls in Spring and Autumn, he combined waterfalls without outlines with clear colour. - The idea of conveying air through gradation and tone rather than outline also speaks to ink painting. ### Seeing the works The works introduced in this article belong to the Tokyo Fuji Art Museum, the Aichi Prefectural Museum of Art, the Kyoto National Museum and the Tokyo National Museum, and their images can be viewed in each museum's database. Displays change over time, so check each museum's information before you go. For painting without outlines, see [What Is Mokkotsu?](https://www.sumieart.art/en/blog/mokkotsu-boneless-painting-technique). If the terms sumi-e, suibokuga and nihonga tend to blur together, our explainer on [sumi-e vs suibokuga](https://www.sumieart.art/en/blog/suiboku-vs-sumie) sorts them out. For the Edo-period artist Katsushika Hokusai, see [Reading Hokusai with an Ink Painter's Eye](https://www.sumieart.art/en/blog/hokusai-ink-painters-eye). ## Frequently Asked Questions ### What is mōrōtai? It is a way of painting nihonga without outlines, begun in the late Meiji period by Yokoyama Taikan and Hishida Shunsō at the urging of Okakura Tenshin. It used soft gradations of colour to convey air and light. ### Why was it called mōrōtai? At the time, its hazy, edgeless pictures were criticised, and the name was given as a criticism. When Shunsō showed works painted without lines, the public is said to have mocked them as mōrōtai. ### Who started mōrōtai? Yokoyama Taikan and Hishida Shunsō. The Nihon Kokugo Daijiten says they began it at the urging of Okakura Tenshin. Shunsō began to experiment with painting without lines around the year before he painted Going Back Home After Fishing in 1901. ### Are mōrōtai and mokkotsu the same? They share the idea of not drawing outlines, and some descriptions explain mōrōtai as a boneless method. But mokkotsu is an East Asian technique used in China since early times, while mōrōtai was a new experiment in Meiji-era nihonga. Rather than treating them as the same, it helps to see them as sharing an idea. ### What are Hishida Shunsō's best-known works? Fallen Leaves (1909) and Black Cat (1910). Both belong to the Eisei Bunko Museum, are designated Important Cultural Properties, and were shown at the Bunten. ### How old was Hishida Shunsō when he died? He died on 16 September 1911, a few days before his 37th birthday. Japanese sources give his age at death as 36, 37 or 38, depending on how age is counted. Three years earlier, in 1908, he had developed an eye disease. ### Where can I see mōrōtai works? The works introduced in this article belong to the Tokyo Fuji Art Museum, the Aichi Prefectural Museum of Art, the Kyoto National Museum and the Tokyo National Museum, and their images can be viewed in each museum's database. Displays change over time, so check each museum's information. ### What can ink painters learn from mōrōtai? The idea of conveying air and depth through gradation and tone rather than outline. Tohun Kobayashi's demonstration, which creates depth from differences in ink tone alone, is a useful reference. Bear in mind, though, that mōrōtai is a nihonga manner centred on colour, and that its materials differ from those of monochrome ink painting. ![Jin](https://www.sumieart.art/hubfs/IMG_3607-2.jpg) Jin Sumi-e Artist Jin is a sumi-e artist and calligrapher whose practice brings Western calligraphy into dialogue with the Japanese tradition of ink painting. In Jin's work, letterforms, brushed lines, and ma — the resonant negative space at the heart of sumi-e — come together in compositions that speak across cultures. This East–West synthesis grounds an ongoing exploration of artistic possibilities that reach beyond cultural boundaries. Jin currently serves as a Director of the International Association of SUMI, and was recently honored with the Special Jury Award — the Arisumi Mitamura Prize — at Art Beyond Boundaries. Rooted in tradition yet attentive to the present, Jin continues to share a contemporary vision of sumi-e with audiences around the world. ## RelatedArticle ### [![Hokusai's Daily Exorcisms: The Lions He Painted Almost Every Morning in His Eighties](https://www.sumieart.art/hubfs/93744.LL.jpg) Suiboku / Japanese Art / Sumie Hokusai's Daily Exorcisms: The Lions He Painted Almost Every Morning in His Eighties](https://www.sumieart.art/en/blog/hokusai-daily-exorcisms) ### [![What Is Mokkotsu? 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