Description

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

Publisher Review

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 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 * The outstanding Japanese novelist of this century -- Edmund White A highly infectious essay lauding all things shady and subtly hidden * Guardian * An elegant essay on traditional Japanese aesthetics by the great novelist. A delight to read * Independent on Sunday *