Ha no omoide

Ha no omoide (Memories of the Leaves) is a miniature print on [washi](/glossary/washi) that engages the Japanese artistic tradition of observing the natural world through close, meditative attention to botanical form. The title suggests a retrospective or elegiac quality — leaves rendered not merely as specimens but as repositories of seasonal experience. Working at the intimate scale required by the Awagami International Miniature Print Exhibition, Morita likely exploits the absorbent surface of washi to achieve subtle gradations of tone, where the texture of the paper itself becomes integral to the depiction of leaf surfaces, veining, or the dappled light filtering through foliage. The miniature format demands compositional economy: each mark carries greater weight than in larger formats, and the relationship between printed area and negative space becomes a primary expressive tool. The work received the Tokushima Modern Art Museum Prize at the 2023 Awagami exhibition, a recognition that situates it within contemporary Japanese printmaking's ongoing dialogue between traditional materials and personal, lyrical subject matter.