Feeling that he had reached the limit during drastic modernization of drama, he decided to retire in 1881 when he published a great masterpiece of Zangirimono (the cropped hair plays) which was called "Shimachidori Tsuki no Shiranami" (commonly called Shimachidori, meaning Plovers of the Island) as his once-in-a-life-time work for his retirement ('isse ichidai' in Japanese), thereafter officially 'retiring' and renaming himself Mokuami.
急激な演劇の近代化に限界を感じ、明治14年(1881)團菊左のために書かれた散切物の大作『島鵆月白浪』（島ちどり）を一世一代として発表後、「引退」して黙阿弥と名乗る。