Shima '15-C Goza

Shima '15-C Goza is a 2015 silkscreen of medium-large format (75 × 53 cm), the third lettered variant in Morioka's 2015 'Shima' sequence. The title combines two readings central to the work: 'shima' can denote both 島 (island) and 縞 (stripes), while 'goza' (茣蓙) refers to the traditional woven rush mat whose tight, parallel weave produces precisely the kind of regular linear pattern that has long preoccupied Japanese abstract printmakers. The composition almost certainly translates the optical rhythm of goza matting into a flat field of carefully gauged bands, exploiting silkscreen's capacity for uniform, opaque ink layers and crisp registration to hold long parallel intervals without the inflection a [baren](/glossary/baren)-printed surface would introduce. The serial '-C' suffix identifies the print as part of an ongoing investigation in which Morioka revisits the same motif under controlled changes of color, density, or interval. Within his wider practice this places the work in the postwar regional silkscreen current that emerged from Aichi-based training programs, where flat-color sōsaku-hanga abstraction was reconciled with motifs drawn from everyday Japanese material culture.