[4] At a young age he became fascinated by astronomy, an interest that would turn into an ongoing engagement with the sciences in his artistic practice.
[3][5] He is known for his use of unusual materials such as iron, sulfur, salt, and oxygen tanks, as well for his aesthetic engagement with dynamic qualities like heat, vibration, and decay to capture "the delicate equilibrium of both life-forming and destructive natural forces.
"[6] An early example of Muraoka's artistic approach of manipulating states of matter is his "July 1954" (1954) for which he is credited with producing the first welded sculpture in Japan.
[10] Despite Muraoka’s primary reputation in sculpture, his practice spanned many different media over his career and particularly during the 1970s when he experimented with photography, drawing, video and audio.
Working collaboratively with Norio Imai and Tōru Kuranuki, recordings of the artists’ heartbeats were played from the roof of a building onto an Osaka street for ten days to intersperse with the noise of the public.
[19] For this piece Muraoka rubbed two 10 yen coins with his hands to gradually wear away the symbolic information and return the objects to their mere material.