Wave Pattern/Dancing Prince Genji (Seikaha), Shôwa period, dated 1975

Wave Pattern / Dancing Prince Genji (Seikaha), Showa period, dated 1975, presents a fusion of classical wave pattern design with the elegant figure of the Shining Prince from The Tale of Genji — Murasaki Shikibu's 11th-century novel that remained a central text of Japanese cultural identity. The seikaha (blue wave) pattern, with its overlapping circular arcs representing waves, was one of the most celebrated traditional Japanese geometric designs, and its conjunction with the Genji figure united two dimensions of classical aesthetic culture in a single composition. Mori's rendering gave this refined subject the bold graphic treatment of his folk-art stencil approach.