In Praise of Shadows

Jun'ichiro Tanizaki author

Format:Paperback

Publisher:Vintage Publishing

Published:3rd May '01

Should be back in stock very soon

This paperback is available in another edition too:

In Praise of Shadows cover

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

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

An elegant essay on traditional Japanese aesthetics by the great novelist. A delight to read * Independent on Sunday *
A highly infectious essay lauding all things shady and subtly hidden * Guardian *
The outstanding Japanese novelist of this century
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 *
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
That it is a work of art can never be in doubt * New Statesman *
It comes to remind the Western reader that the razzle dazzle of electric lighting was foreign for thousands of years … above all, it highlights the fact that shadow is inseparable from our holistic and spiritual relationship with light * Lighting *

ISBN: 9780099283577

Dimensions: 198mm x 130mm x 5mm

Weight: 66g

80 pages