At the center of this work, lotus leaves and the summer leaves of other flowering plants gather and overlap. Within them, an open space appears, almost like a small sanctuary.　Beside this central form, a vertical line cuts sharply across the composition, dividing the pictorial space. To the left, the shadow of a lotus seed pod can be seen. The background combines different times and places: night and day, together with a view along the edge of a pond.　Separate objects and distinct spaces are brought close to one another until they become equivalent elements within a single image. Although this collage-like landscape is ultimately a construction of the imagination, the unexpected harmony created among these dissimilar forms gives the image a unique unity.　If I were to relate this quality to Shinto, I would describe it as being close to the Japanese idea of wa—a spirit of harmony in which differences are not erased but allowed to coexist within a larger whole.