In Praise of Shadows
Leete's Island Books · first published 1933 · 56 pages
A short essay on dim light, lacquerware, and old houses, and on why shadow matters to beauty.
Digressive and personal, it wanders from toilets to candlelight and leaves familiar rooms looking different.
For a night with the lights turned low.
About this book
In 1933, the novelist Tanizaki Jun'ichirō set out to consider what electric light and modern fixtures were doing to Japanese rooms and tastes. Moving from lacquer bowls and paper screens to theater, food, and the dim interiors of old houses, he argues for the beauty of things half seen. He is grumpy, funny, and unafraid to contradict himself. What stays is a new attention to the corners of rooms where the light gives out.