In Praise of Shadows
  • Published: 1 June 2001
  • ISBN: 9780099283577
  • Imprint: Vintage Classics
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 80
  • RRP: $26.00

In Praise of Shadows

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An intimate reflection on Japanese art and architecture from one of the country's greatest novelists.

Were it not for shadows there would be no beauty.

Nothing evokes the calm and nuance of the traditional Japanese aesthetic more profoundly than this book. Tanizaki’s eye ranges over architecture, jade, food, even toilets, examining the design and feel of the intimate places we inhabit. His acute sense of the use of space in buildings, his poetic descriptions of lacquerware under candlelight and his appreciation for natural materials suggest the possibility of a simpler, more beautiful life – one in which the softness of shadows is shielded from the dazzling light of modernity.

‘Tanazaki suggests an attitude of appreciation and mindfulness, especially mindfulness of beauty, as central to life lived well’ AC Grayling, Guardian

‘That it is a work of art can never be in doubt’ New Statesman

'Elegant...a delight to read' Independent on Sunday
  • Published: 1 June 2001
  • ISBN: 9780099283577
  • Imprint: Vintage Classics
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 80
  • RRP: $26.00
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About the author

Junichiro Tanizaki

Junichiro Tanizaki was one of Japan's greatest twentienth century novelists. Born in 1886 in Tokyo, his first published work - a one-act play - appeared in 1910 in a literary magazine he helped to found. Tanizaki lived in the cosmopolitan Tokyo area until the earthquake of 1923, when he moved to the Kyoto-Osaka region and became absorbed in Japan's past.

All his most important works were written after 1923, among them Some Prefer Nettles (1929), The Secret History of the Lord of Musashi (1935), several modern versions of The Tale of Genji (1941, 1954 and 1965), The Makioka Sisters, The Key (1956) and Diary of a Mad Old Man (1961). He was awarded an Imperial Award for Cultural Merit in 1949 and in 1965 he was elected an honorary member of the American Academy and the National Institute of Arts and Letters, the first Japanese writer to receive this honour. Tanizaki died later that same year.

portrait photo of Junichiro Tanizaki

Also by Junichiro Tanizaki

The Key & Diary of a Mad Old Man
The Secret History Of The Lord Of Musashi
Naomi
Some Prefer Nettles
Diary of a Mad Old Man
The Key
The Reed Cutter and Captain Shigemoto's Mother
See all

Praise for In Praise of Shadows

An elegant essay on traditional Japanese aesthetics by the great novelist. A delight to read

Independent on Sunday

A highly infectious essay lauding all things shady and subtly hidden

Guardian

The outstanding Japanese novelist of this century

Edmund White

This is a powerfully anti-modernist book, yet contains the most beautiful evocation of the traditional Japanese aesthetic... More like a poem than an essay

Building Design

I am convinced that Tanizaki is one of the few great writers of our time. He is an author of outstanding stature and deserves to be far better known outside Japan than he is

Ivan Morris

That it is a work of art can never be in doubt

New Statesman

It comes to remind the Western reader that the razzle dazzle of electric lighting was foreign for thousands of years … above all, it highlights the fact that shadow is inseparable from our holistic and spiritual relationship with light

Lighting

An elegant essay on traditional Japanese aesthetics by the great novelist. A delight to read

Independent on Sunday

A highly infectious essay lauding all things shady and subtly hidden

Guardian

The outstanding Japanese novelist of this century

Edmund White

This is a powerfully anti-modernist book, yet contains the most beautiful evocation of the traditional Japanese aesthetic... More like a poem than an essay

Building Design

That it is a work of art can never be in doubt

New Statesman

I am convinced that Tanizaki is one of the few great writers of our time. He is an author of outstanding stature and deserves to be far better known outside Japan than he is

Ivan Morris

It comes to remind the Western reader that the razzle dazzle of electric lighting was foreign for thousands of years … above all, it highlights the fact that shadow is inseparable from our holistic and spiritual relationship with light

Lighting