Hasegawa Tohaku and Japanese aesthetic of ‘waki’

Hasegawa Tohaku, Folded painted screen, 1608.

I’m very interested in recent research about the Japanese aesthetic of ‘waki’ :

“…austere natural beauty. Artists challenged to endow voids, absences or limitations with significance. Links with Buddist philosophy of emptiness, poverty, silence and stillness conveying a paradoxical plentitude. The attention can settle without distraction, calm rather than excite.“

- from ‘A Hundred Ideas that Changed Art’ by Michael Bird, 2013

There is a sense of a single moment caught here. The trees move in and out of the mist as though in and out of existence. A limited colour pallet adds to the calmness and serenity. Also a sense of divided time with divided panels, each a snapshot.