“In Praise of Shadows” Junichiro Tanizaki (1933) Review | Finding beauty even in toilet

★★★★★ Obsessively white tiles cannot give the warm beauty that old wood could. Japanese sentiments find beauty in shadows and in old. Masterpiece essay from Tanizaki, I mean he even writes beautifully about toilet.

🔽 log 🔽
In Praise of Shadows, 1933
Junichiro Tanizaki
Jun'ichirō Tanizaki
陰翳礼讃
谷崎潤一郎
288 pages 
Read 2024.11


🔽 Book review and notes 🔽
A masterpiece essay from Tanizaki to praise the shadow, darkness and old. 

He's not just saying how darkness is good; he talks about the sentiment Japanese people have to feel that the cleanliness of white tiles cannot give the beauty that the old brown wooden board could give.

Japanese are used to living in the dark rooms and they don't force the room to be brighter but they find beauty in the darkness.
Women's clear skin is beautiful because the room is dark, and the custom of ohaguro (women paint their teeth black) also emphasises the pale skin.
Same for some Japanese traditional art, like kabuki, the costumes are so bright, because back then the stage was darker.

Now, almost 100 years on, I'm not sure the Japanese living today still have the same feeling towards darkness.
But it's not completely gone, so hopefully this very Japanese sentiments stay with us.

The book is a collection of his essays, so it talks about various things like traveling and how he hates guests, or about toilets.
It's fun reading the grumpy Tanizaki whining about how he hates having guests, the book overall is not too serious.
When he goes on and on about toilet, in his wonderful way of writing, you just have to smile - ah granddad!

🔽 Where to buy 🔽

●●● Amazon.com (US) ●●●

In Praise of Shadows

●●● Amazon.co.uk (UK) ●●●
In Praise of Shadows (Vintage Classics)

●●● Amazon.it (Italy) ●●●
Libro d'ombra (Italiano)