A later painting from this series Image from black gate (1987) is reproduced in the October 1989 issue of Arts Magazine, courtesy Jack Tilton Gallery, New York. In his article Enclosure, Layering Minoru Kawabata Reclaims Tradition Ora Lerman says, "For Kawabata, the gate image did in fact evolve, as it developed from the Japanese character for gate. The classical shape of this Chinese-derived ideogram with double doors "depicts two wings with plenty of space underneath to allow the air to circulate and domestic animals to come and go while still providing a measure of privacy--the typical door of a peasant's home." Lerman describes Kawabata's role and gate painting series as depictions of enclosures," as containers they create an aura of ambiguity, because concealment always implies the possibility of disclosure. Also part of their mystery is created by the flat, frontal way such images are layered to separate the near from the far in Japanese art--as the distance is made even more elusive."