 English language cover | |
| Author | Jun'ichirō Tanizaki |
|---|---|
| Original title | 陰翳礼讃 (In'ei Raisan) |
| Translator | Thomas J. Harper andEdward G. Seidensticker |
| Language | Japanese |
| Genre | Philosophy, aesthetics |
| Publisher | Various |
Publication date | 1933 (original)[1] |
| Publication place | Japan |
Published in English |
|
| Pages | 73 (original) |
In Praise of Shadows (陰翳礼讃,In'ei Raisan) is a 1933 essay onJapanese aesthetics by the Japanese authorJun'ichirō Tanizaki. The first English translation was published in 1977.[1] In the foreword to this edition, the architectCharles Moore writes that "it helps us to look deep into ourselves to our own inhabitation of our world, as it describes with spine-tingling insights the traditional Japanese inhabitation of theirs. It could change our lives."
Already sketched out in a series of comments that appear inSome Prefer Nettles, Tanizaki's aesthetic credo, in the more finished form of this essay, was originally published in 1933 inJapanese.[1] Much shorter than the author's novels, this book is a small meditative work of 73 pages, of which 59 are the essay itself.[citation needed]
The first English translation was published in 1977 by Leete's Island Books.[1][2] This edition contains a foreword by architect and educator Charles Moore and an afterword by one of the translators, Thomas J. Harper. Harper was Senior Lecturer inJapanese Literature at theAustralian National University inCanberra. The other translator,Edward Seidensticker, was Professor of Japanese Literature atColumbia University. Seidensticker's students assisted with the translation.[3]
In 2001,Penguin Random House published a reprint of this translation in paperback.[4]
An English translation by Gregory Starr, with illustrations and photographs by Andrew Pothecary, was published by Sora Books in December 2017.[5][6] This 102-page edition includes a foreword by the Japanese architectKengo Kuma and an afterword by Japanese literature Professor Eve Zimmerman ofWellesley College.[7][8]
A new English translation by Michael P. Cronin, an associate professor of Japanese Studies at theCollege of William & Mary,[9] is slated to be published byTuttle Publishing on May 26th, 2026.[10] It is a hardbound 192-page edition illustrated with photographs by John Einarsen.[11][12]
The essay consists of 16 sections that discuss traditionalJapanese aesthetics in contrast with change. Comparisons of light with darkness are used to contrastWestern andAsian cultures. The West, in its striving for progress, is presented as continuously searching for light and clarity, while the subtle and subdued forms of East Asian art and literature are seen by Tanizaki to represent an appreciation of shadow and subtlety, closely relating to the traditional Japanese concept ofsabi. In addition to contrasting light and dark, Tanizaki further considers the layered tones of various kinds of shadows and their power to reflect low sheen materials like gold embroidery, patina and cloudy crystals. In addition, he distinguishes between the values of gleam and shine.
The text presents personal reflections on topics as diverse asarchitecture and its fittings, crafts, finishes,jade, food,cosmetics andmono no aware (the art of impermanence). Tanizaki explores in close description the use of space in buildings,lacquerware by candlelight,[1] monastery toilets[13] and women in the dark of a brothel. The essay acts as "a classic description of the collision between the shadows of traditional Japanese interiors and the dazzling light of the modern age".[attribution needed][14]
In the Sora Books edition, the 16 section themes are:
Tanizaki's observations include cultural notes on topics such as arts and crafts, paper making, lacquerware design and the Japanese room. He gives a recipe for the unusual dish ofPersimmon leafSushi on pages 60 to 62. He also refers to many historic places and temples, as well as celebrated eateries of the day, along with customs like "moon-viewing" (tsukimi).
Among the historic and contemporary individuals mentioned in the essay are:[15]
The work has been praised for its insight and relevance into issues of modernity and culture,[16] and Tanizaki has been called an "ecological prophet".[16]A. C. Grayling has described Tanizaki's essay on Japanese taste as a "hymn to nuance" and an exercise in mindfulness.[1]
Junichiro Tanizaki selects for praise all things delicate and nuanced, everything softened by shadows and the patina of age, anything understated and natural—as for example the patterns of grain in old wood, the sound of rain dripping from eaves and leaves, or washing over the footing of a stone lantern in a garden, and refreshing the moss that grows about it – and by doing so he suggests an attitude of appreciation and mindfulness, especially mindfulness of beauty, as central to life lived well.[1]
In the spirit of Tanizaki juxtaposing the cultures of east and west, Grayling notes a link to a similar approach and emphasis in the British writerWalter Pater whose final essay about the Renaissance he quotes, "The service of speculative culture towards the human spirit is to rouse, to startle it to a life of constant and eager observation". Grayling concludes that the difference between the two essayists lies in the "tranquility" of Tanizaki and the "intensity" of Pater.[1]
Regarding the 2017 translation,David Mitchell, author ofCloud Atlas, wrote, "A rhapsodic meditation on a vanishing world, its aesthetics and its values. Gregory Starr's new translation is pitch perfect and transparent." Stephen Mansfield, in theJapan Times wrote, "Tanizaki, in Gregory Starr’s new and highly accomplished translation, samples a number of instances where the use and perception of light differs from the West, noting that, where Western paper reflects light, traditional Japanese paper absorbs it."[17]
The book also served as the primary inspiration for an album of the same name by musician Puma Blue.[18]
Readers of Tanizaki are variously startled or entertained to find that his essay on the delights of what is muted, enclosed and refined by shadows, begins with a paean to the lavatories found in Japanese monasteries
