Hisao Domoto was born in 1928 in Kyoto, into a family of artists and connoisseurs. His father collected ceramics, calligraphy and painting, and his uncle was the celebrated Nihonga (traditional Japanese painting) artist, Insho Domoto. Following in his uncle`s footsteps, Hisao practiced Nihonga and in 1951 won grand prize in his group (of which there are five) at Nitten, Japan`s annual Fine Art exhibition. In 1952 he traveled with his uncle to Italy, France and Spain and in 1954 he moved to Paris where he lived until returning to Japan in 1965. In Paris he took over a Left Bank studio and was instrumental in introducing members of the European Informel movement to the like-minds of Japan`s Gutai. Both were concerned with the possibility of physicality and energy provided by art. Domoto abandoned oil for acrylic. He began to paint huge, bright canvases of circle-square-triangle combinations. These abstractions were built upon traditional foundations, using the strict compositional rules of his Nihonga training. His aim was to update a Zen iconography perfected by 19th century master, Gibbon Sengai, who had used the simplicity of these shapes to represent mountains, clouds, all possible forms, all existence.