Series | Ca’ Foscari Japanese Studies
Edited book | The Aesthetics of Emptiness
Chapter | Sulla tela del tempo
Abstract
Etude III for piano by Hosokawa Toshio is an admirable summary of his poetics, which are closely related to the aesthetics of emptiness. In his works, acting as a link between Eastern and Western culture the composer studies the polarity between sound and silence, reinterpreting it in the light of calligraphic experience. Inspired by shodō, Hosokawa traces sound within the spatial-temporal dimension thanks to an interior openness that makes it possible to listen to one’s own voice. Energy (ki) is thus released, fuelling a network of relations that are suspended on the border of impermanence and placed in the background of a great void. Thanks to the respect for every being that contributes to universe life, Hosokawa’s can not only be interpreted as an artistic, civil and political lesson, but also as a sociological and ecological one.
Submitted: Aug. 30, 2022 | Accepted: Nov. 24, 2022 | Published April 21, 2023 | Language: it
Keywords Etude III • Hosokawa • Silence and sound • Emptiness • Calligraphy
Copyright © 2023 Letizia Michielon. This is an open-access work distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction is permitted, provided that the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. The license allows for commercial use. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
Permalink http://doi.org/10.30687/978-88-6969-701-2/015