The compositional function of the horizon line in defining space in Western art and culture is absent in some aspects of traditional Japanese arts and cultural worldview. From early Japanese cosmologies the horizon line has been reconsidered in Zen Sansui-style landscape paintings, in the philosophy of Kitaro Nishida, and in some contemporary architectures. The manifestations of horizonless-ness explored here contrast with the notion of the horizon as a dividing line, predominant in Western thought. The notion of the horizon as a separating boundary can be associated with the dualistic worldview that considers nature and culture as irreconcilable opposites; a fundemental characteristic of a world where the subject is separated from the environment. This paper explores how such a dualistic worldview is absent in certain Japanese traditions and artistic expressions, shedding new light on the familiar trope that proposes a harmonious relationship between Japanese culture and nature. In doing so, it examines a horizonless worldview and its implications for aesthetics and the built environment. To these ends, this paper explores two contemporary art museums on islands in the Setouchi region of Japan: Tadao Ando’s Chichu Art Museum on Naoshima Island and Ryue Nishizawa and Rei Naito’s toponymic Teshima Art Museum on Teshima Island. By exploring the horizonless architectural strategies of these two museums, they can be linked to the principles of Sansui-style painting and to Nishida’s ideas of both absence and nothingness.
Alfonso Arango González (Fri,) studied this question.