is a 1933 essay on Japanese aesthetics by the Japanese author Jun'ichirō Tanizaki. It was translated into English, in 1977, by the academic students of Japanese literature Thomas J. Harper and Edward Seidensticker. A new translation by Gregory Starr was published in 2017.
Publication history
Already sketched out in a series of comments that appear in Some Prefer Nettles, Tanizaki's aesthetic credo, in the more finished form of this essay, was originally published in 1933 in Japanese.
The English translation was published in 1977 by Leete's Island Books. The translation contains a foreword by architect and educator Charles Moore and an afterword by one of the translators, Thomas J. Harper. Harper was Senior Lecturer in Japanese Literature at the Australian National University in Canberra. The other translator, Edward Seidensticker, was Professor of Japanese Literature at Columbia University.
Much shorter than the author's novels, this book is a small meditative work of 73 pages, of which 59 are the essay itself.
In 2001, Random House published a reprint in paperback.
A new English translation by Gregory Starr, with illustrations and photographs by Andrew Pothecary, was published by Sora Books in December 2017. The 102-page edition also includes a foreword by the Japanese architect Kengo Kuma and an afterword by Japanese literature Professor Eve Zimmerman of Wellesley College.
Themes
The essay consists of 16 sections that discuss traditional Japanese aesthetics in contrast with change. Comparisons of light with darkness are used to contrast Western and Asian cultures. The West, in its striving for progress, is presented as continuously searching for light and clarity, while the subtle and subdued forms of East Asian art and literature are seen by Tanizaki to represent an appreciation of shadow and subtlety, closely relating to the traditional Japanese concept of sabi. In addition to contrasting light and dark, Tanizaki further considers the layered tones of various kinds of shadows and their power to reflect low sheen materials like gold embroidery, patina and cloudy crystals. In addition, he distinguishes between the values of gleam and shine.
The text presents personal reflections on topics as diverse as architecture and its fittings, crafts, finishes, jade, food, cosmetics and mono no aware (the art of impermanence). Tanizaki explores in close description the use of space in buildings, lacquerware by candlelight, monastery toilets and women in the dark of a brothel. The essay acts as "a classic description of the collision between the shadows of traditional Japanese interiors and the dazzling light of the modern age".
In the Sora Books edition, the 16 section themes are: On construction The toilet aesthetic A different course A novelist's daydreams On paper, tin and dirt Candlelight and lacquerware Bowls of broth The enigma of shadows An uncanny silence Reflections in darkness Shadows on the stage The woman of old Beauty in the dark A world of shadows A cool breeze in total darkness Final grumblings
Cultural notes
Tanizaki's observations include cultural notes on topics such as arts and crafts, paper making, lacquerware design and the Japanese room. He gives a recipe for the unusual dish of Persimmon leaf Sushi on pages 60 to 62. He also refers to many historic places and temples, as well as celebrated eateries of the day, along with customs like "moon-viewing" (tsukimi).
Featured individuals
Among the historic and contemporary individuals mentioned in the essay are: Natsume Sōseki, novelist, on the experience of textures and landscape via the traditional Japanese toilet, p. 9; Sōseki's Pillow of Grass, p. 26. Saitō Ryokuu, poet quoted as saying "elegance is frigid", p. 10. Buddha and Confucius, p. 16. Kongō Iwao, Nō actor, p. 39. Baikō, aging Kabuki actor, p. 43. Takebaya Sanehiko, president of Kaizō Publishing House (which had published Tanizaki's earlier novel Quicksand), p. 54. Albert Einstein, scientist, p. 54.
Reception
The work has been praised for its insight and relevance into issues of modernity and culture, and Tanizaki has been called an "ecological prophet". A. C. Grayling has described Tanizaki's essay on Japanese taste as a "hymn to nuance" and an exercise in mindfulness.