Shizen
Shizen (自然) means nature, with a sense of things being as they are. When our kids were born, we moved from Tokyo to Chigasaki to raise them closer to the sea and the mountains. In our garden we built a small biotope, where water plants and tiny creatures keep each other going with almost no help from us. I could watch it for hours.
This collection brings that everyday kind of nature indoors: ferns, stones, water, a single reed.
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Indigo Pilgrimage -
Waterdrop -
Pine Silhouette -
Morning Fern -
Cherry Absence -
Wild Grass -
Seasons Garden · Still Pond · Winter -
Seasons Garden · Snow Path · Winter -
Seasons Garden · Bare Tree · Winter -
Seasons Garden · Leaf Pond · Autumn -
Seasons Garden · Leaf Path · Autumn -
Seasons Garden · Golden Tree · Autumn -
Seasons Garden · Lily Pond · Summer -
Seasons Garden · Swallow Path · Summer -
Seasons Garden · Green Tree · Summer -
Spring Hills in Bloom -
Seasons Garden · Petal Pond · Spring -
Seasons Garden · Stone Path · Spring -
Seasons Garden · Cherry Tree · Spring -
Spring Wisteria -
Early Plum -
Pebble Garden
How I choose these pieces
For every piece on this page, at least ten others didn't make it. I drop anything that doesn't feel truly Japanese. And I only keep a piece if I'd want it on my own wall, and if I can picture the room it would make calmer.
Ryushi Nagata, founder of the MA walls
Shizen art prints: small things from the natural world
Shizen (自然) is the Japanese word for nature. Read literally, the two characters mean "so of itself": things as they are when nobody forces them. It covers forests and coasts, and it also covers a smile or a gesture that is not put on.
The seven pieces in this collection each look at one small thing. Morning Fern is a single frond uncurling. Pine Silhouette is a wind-shaped Japanese pine. Wild Grass is one bending stem. Waterdrop is the moment before a drop falls. Pebble Garden looks down on stones in raked sand. Cherry Absence is a branch holding its last petals. Indigo Pilgrimage is a torii gate standing in a lake below a mountain.
Where to hang shizen wall art
These prints suit rooms where you go to feel settled: a bedroom, a living room corner, a study. They sit well beside real plants and natural materials such as wood, linen and stone.
For help with height, size and spacing, read our guide to hanging Japandi wall art.
Paper and sizes
Each shizen poster is printed to order on museum-quality matte paper sourced from Japan (189 g/m²), in four sizes from 12×16 in to 24×36 in. Each design is also available as a framed print.
Want the story behind the word? Read What Is Shizen? in our Journal.