Since before the war, Morita Shiryu had been eager to rely on more than just lines and dots on a flat surface but to give his works greater depth with textures comprising highs and lows. En is one of the thirty-three works Morita exhibited in 1963 in his solo exhibition in New York. He enlarges a single character to a huge format, aiming to imbue it with a sense of heaviness and depth. 1963 was a year of experimentation for Morita: He began to abandon the conventional shape of characters, worked with highly diluted ink, and attempted to suppress its sheen by adding lampblack, creating an even deeper black than usual. For the present work, Morita used bond ink (ink mixed with glue) to enhance the impression of heaviness. This would at the same time prevent the ink from running and enable him to write in multiple layers. In En, the amount of ink used is approaching an impasto effect, with and a sense of volume befitting a character that literally means “deep pool.”

Morita Shiryu (avant-garde calligrapher; 1912–1998)
Avant-garde calligrapher from Hyogo Prefecture. Like fellow artist Inoue Yuichi, Morita studied under the calligraphy master Ueda Sokyu. He co-founded the avant-garde group Bokujinkai together with Inoue and was the founder and editor of the journal Bokubi (Beauty of Ink), both of which revolutionized traditional Japanese calligraphy and spread knowledge of Japanese avant-garde calligraphy to an international audience. He was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor with Dark Blue Ribbon.