Emptiness In Hasegawa Tohaku's 'White'

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Reading Response # 3 When Kenya Hara writes about emptiness in his book White, he writes with a great respect towards it. Emptiness is full of limitless potential, and we as humans are naturally drawn to it. While emptiness is often associated with nothingness, Hara views it as indicating “kizen,” something likely to be filled in the future. When he describes Hasegawa Tohaku’s screen painting “Pine Trees,” the focus is on how the whiteness of the page paints the rest of the picture; By refusing to give a detailed description of the space around the trees, the viewer is invited to interpreted and their senses are awakened. The purpose of emptiness that most resonated with me in Hara’s text is the notion of a resting place. Whiteness gives our