Having exhibited many times as a young artist in the Dokuritsu Exhibition and Zendoten, Nissho had steadily built a foundation in the art world for himself, and just at this cusp in his life, his work and everything came to an unexpected and abrupt end. He passed away at the age of 32 on August 25, 1970. His career had lasted but a brief fifteen years. As a testament to how suddenly he had passed, his studio contained several pieces still in progress, the most famous being the front half of a horse, called Horse (last work, unfinished). People have talked about the painting as a “return to his roots”—his painting style around 1965, when he portrayed the workhorse and other subjects with great realism. But, in fact, there is a layer of paint underneath the dark brown that has the red, blue, and yellow primary colors of his Informel period. This is evidence that he was continuing to experiment at that point. As an artist, he breathed life into the painted horse with every short, deep brushstroke, as if each touch were plowing the land he once knew. Yet, that effort went uncompleted, the painted horse finished only to the withers. Because of the painting’s unfinished stature, it has become a focal point for discussion on many topics and themes related to art, such as matière and image, the touch of the brush, and realism, not to mention such issues as uncompleted works, the premature death of an artist, and the relationship between the artist and society. Viewers will likely continue to have such discussions as they stand in front of his unfinished works.