Few details of his life have survived. He was born in Edo (Tokyo), the son of the artist Furuyama Moroshige, who in turn was the son of the master artist
Hishikawa Moronobu but established his lineage, the Furuyama School. Moromasa designed woodblock prints with
genre scenes of ordinary life, sporting contests, activities in the
Yoshiwara district, and similar subjects. He was one of the first Japanese artists to use
linear perspective, a technique first used to show interiors, such as tea houses, in a genre known as
uki-e. This was likely done under the influence of
megane-e (
vedute) from Europe and China. He also produced paintings in the popular category of 'beautiful women' (
bijin-ga). Moromasa's most famous work is a pair of handscroll paintings depicting the theater district (
Azuma yarō; owned by
Central Library, Edinburgh) and brothel district (
Shinobu-yama; owned by
Museo Stibbert, Florence) of Edo, measuring 13 meters and 16 meters long respectively. He was active until around the mid-1700s and wrote several texts on the engraving. ==See also==