Ito Moegi is an important figure in the world of contemporary Japanese metalworking who has made a speciality of using aluminium as his chosen medium. On the one hand fascinated by industrial processes used in the manufacture of engine blocks and aeronautical components, he has also been drawn to the artisanal skills used in Japan to produce hammered aluminium cookware for domestic and restaurant use. In pursuit of his stated aim of 'incorporating industrial materials into the realm of the hand-crafted (kogyo seihin o teshigoto no sekai e tori-ireru)', he has developed an extraordinary ability to cold-forge sensuous, billowing forms out of huge sheets of aluminium, a talent that won him prizes at the annual Japan Art Exhibition (Nitten) in both 1979 and 1984.

This particular work, which he made in 1988, belongs to a highly fertile period in his career when he started combining his hammered, patinated and anodised forms with solid blocks of milled aluminium. The striated patterning on the upper section was achieved by matting the surface of the aluminium using techniques similar to those used to prepare aluminium surfaces for painting, masking with metal adhesive tape, and then burnishing the exposed areas followed by removal of the adhesive tape and final cleaning.

According to the artist's wife, the title of the work comes from the fact that he travelled to Southeast Asia in 1987 and 1988 to visit its historical sites.