Domoto Hisao was at the forefront of abstract art, becoming involved with the Art Informel movement; a group of European artists with concerns similar to those of the Gutai in Japan, namely a conviction that in painting the substance and physicality of paint itself conveys energy and meaning.

In 1957 there was an exhibition organised by the influential French art critic Michael Tapié entitled L’art mondial contemporain à Tokyo, and Domoto introduced Tapié to the Gutai movement at this time. In 1958 he was in an exhibition of Art Informel and Gutai artists called The International Art of a New Era: USA, Japan, Europe held at the Osaka International Art Festival.

Domoto was born in Kyoto to a family of artists and connoisseurs. His father collected traditional Japanese ceramics, calligraphy and painting, and his uncle, the painter Domoto Insho (1891-1975), won the Order of Cultural Merit in 1961. In 1952 Domoto Hisao travelled with his uncle to France, Italy and Spain and in 1954 he moved to Paris where he lived until returning to Japan in 1965. He spent December 1958 and January 1959 in New York where he met many artists including Jasper Johns (b. 1939) and Robert Rauschenberg (1925-2008).