Jun’ichirō Tanizaki

Jun'ichirō Tanizaki was a Japanese novelist and essayist, one of the major writers of modern Japanese literature. Born in Tokyo, he was drawn early to Western styles and themes, but after the Great Kantō earthquake of 1923 he moved to the Kansai region and turned increasingly to traditional Japanese culture. His long essay In Praise of Shadows (1933) contrasts a Western taste for brightness and clarity with an older Japanese aesthetic of dimness, patina and half-light, finding beauty in lacquerware seen by candlelight, in the shadowed alcove of a room and even in the traditional toilet. Though not a philosopher by profession, he made a case for everyday aesthetics that architects, designers and philosophers still read. His novels include Naomi, Some Prefer Nettles and The Makioka Sisters, and he made several modern Japanese versions of The Tale of Genji.

Key ideas

• Beauty can lie in shadow and in the play of dim light, not only in brightness and clarity.
• Objects gain beauty from age, use and patina rather than from newness and shine.
• Taste is bound up with a whole way of life, including architecture, lighting, food and even the toilet.
• Imported technologies such as bright electric lighting quietly reshape a culture's sense of beauty.

Major works

• Naomi (1924–1925)
• Some Prefer Nettles (1928–1929)
• In Praise of Shadows (1933)
• The Makioka Sisters (1943–1948)
• The Key (1956)
• Diary of a Mad Old Man (1961–1962)

In the Book corner

• In Praise of Shadows 1933 · Beginner
  A long essay by the novelist Tanizaki on Japanese taste and the beauty of dimness. Writing as electric lighting and Western fittings…

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