Setsugo (Joining Together)—Circle, Square, Triangle

This 1978 mezzotint extends the Setsugo (Joining Together) series into the realm of fundamental geometry, using the circle, square, and triangle as its constituent forms. These three shapes hold special significance in Japanese Zen aesthetics, famously depicted together in paintings attributed to the monk Sengai Gibon, where they represent the universe, earth, and the human form respectively. Hamanishi's mezzotint reinterprets this philosophical triad through the lens of Western intaglio technique, rendering the three shapes with the volumetric solidity that burnished tonal gradation provides. The circle, square, and triangle do not merely sit on the surface as flat geometric diagrams; they appear to occupy three-dimensional space, their curved and angled surfaces catching and rejecting light in ways that give them physical weight and presence.