Imaginative Intersections: Engaging Aesthetic Experience at the Shofuso Japanese House

Authors

Peter L. Doebler, Dayton Art InstituteFollow

Abstract

This essay explores how the imagination creates dynamic aesthetic experiences by negotiating the intersection of opposites. The goal is to enrich our thinking about the relation of nature and art within a more comprehensive environmental aesthetics. I focus on a single example, the intersections created by the particular experience of space and time in the paintings of Hiroshi Senju, at the Shofuso Japanese House in Philadelphia. First, I provide a brief introduction to Senju and the work at Shofuso. Next, building on perspectives from within environmental aesthetics and Senju’s own writings, I sketch out a framework for thinking about the imagination. Finally, I examine how this creates meaningful intersections in the experience of space and time at Shofuso, drawing on the work of the philosopher Watsuji Tetsurō.