Ida Shoichi was born in Kyoto in 1941. He studied Western painting at the Kyoto Municipal University of Art, and later continued his creative activity in France and the United States. In 1989, the Suntory Prize was awarded to this work; one of a series of objects made for his "Karma Project." This work was created by pouring molten paper into a small well dug in the Tujunga Desert in the United States, and then allowing it to solidify. In order to give the impression of fossilized ground, earth, stone and other natural objects are impressed on the paper surface.