Yu-ichi Inoue gained an international reputation through the course of his career; in fact, Robert Motherwell called him one of the few great artists from the latter half of the 20th century—in spite of his reluctance to regularly participate in exhibitions. Inoue was considered an avant-garde calligrapher for his character-based subject matter, as well as his radicalization of traditional calligraphic techniques and styles. While his primary influences were the old masters of Japanese calligraphy, Inoue also employed action painting techniques like beating or splashing strips of paper with ink-laden brushes. He believed writing in this way could not only convey the meaning of the characters, but also a primitive impulse and an internal state of creativity.