 English language cover | |
| Author | Jun'ichirō Tanizaki |
|---|---|
| Original title | 陰翳礼讃 (In'ei Raisan) |
| Translator |
|
| Language | Japanese |
| Genre | Philosophy, aesthetics |
| Publisher | Various |
Publication date | 1933 (original)[1] |
| Publication place | Japan |
Published in English | |
| Pages | 59 (original essay) |
In Praise of Shadows (陰翳礼讃,In'ei Raisan) is an essay byJun'ichirō Tanizaki aboutJapanese aesthetics. Tanizaki's observations include cultural notes on customs and tradition, people, historical places and buildings, discussion of various materials and craft techniques, as well as food and even unusual recipes as seen through the author's metaphorical lens of light and shadow. The original essay was published in Japan in 1933.
The first English translation was published in 1977, and includes a foreword by the architectCharles Moore, who writes that the work "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."[1]
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, monastery toilets and women in the dark of a brothel.[1] 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".[6][3]
The 16 section themes are translated in the 2017 English version as follows:[4]
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:[7]
Tanizaki's aesthetic credo was already sketched out in a series of comments that appear in his 1929 novelSome Prefer Nettles, and subsequently published in the more polished form ofIn'ei Raisan in 1933.[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.[2][1] This edition contains a foreword by architect and educatorCharles 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.[8]Penguin Random House published a paperback reprint of this translation in 2001.[3]
A later English translation by Gregory Starr, with illustrations and photographs by Andrew Pothecary, was published by Sora Books in December 2017.[4][9] This 102-page edition includes a foreword by the Japanese architectKengo Kuma and an afterword by Japanese literature Professor Eve Zimmerman ofWellesley College.[10][11]
A new English translation by Michael P. Cronin, an associate professor of Japanese Studies at theCollege of William & Mary,[12] is slated for publication in May 2026.[5] It is a hardbound 192-page edition published byTuttle Publishing, and illustrated by Kyoto based photographer John Einarsen.[13][14]
An Italian version,Libro d'ombra, was published byBompiani in 1988.[15]Éloge de l'ombre, a French translation byRené Sieffert was published by Éditions Verdier in 2011.[16] Translations have also been published in German,[17] Spanish,[18] Chinese, Korean, and many other languages.
The work has been praised for its insight and relevance into issues of modernity and culture,[19][better source needed] and Tanizaki has been called an "ecological prophet".[19][better source needed]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."[20]
The book also served as the primary inspiration for an album of the same name by musician Puma Blue.[21]
