Description

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

This is an enchanting essay on aesthetics by one of the greatest Japanese novelists. Tanizaki’s eye ranges over architecture, jade, food, toilets, and combines an acute sense of the use of space in buildings, as well as perfect descriptions of lacquerware under candlelight and women in the darkness of the house of pleasure. The result is a classic description of the collision between the shadows of traditional Japanese interiors and the dazzling light of the modern age.

‘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 *