Nara’s work took a dramatic shift following the March 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami and the Fukushima nuclear disaster, which occurred only forty-three miles north of his studio. Emotionally affected by the aftermath, Nara painted In the Milky Lake/Thinking One, a portrait of a solemn-faced girl with closed eyelids who wears a green dress and is half-submerged in a barely visible pool of water; it was the only major painting he produced in 2011.