Exploring the ‘Sketchiness’ and ‘Depicting Thoughts’ of the Mōrōtai

Abstract

The first section of this paper, Exploring the Sketchiness and Depicting Thoughts of the Mōrōtai, focuses on the Mōrōtai, a form of expression in Japanese painting, and clarifies its Sketchiness and Depicting Thoughts. In the first section, the meaning of the term Mōrōtai is discussed using major dictionaries and other sources to clarify the current theories surrounding the Mōrōtai. In the second section, the definitions of the terms sketchiness and Depicting Thoughts are defined in order to use them as analytical concepts in this thesis. In the third section, we use the analytical concepts of sketchiness and Depicting Thoughts defined in the previous section to analyze Hishida Shunsō's Hōkaku and Yokoyama Taikan's Hikifune as representative works that incorporate the expression of the Mōrōtai style. This paper is an attempt to clarify the ambiguity in Japanese painting through the analysis of these works.