Mar 19, 2025
Comments (1)
I really enjoyed reading this work, and the values it attributes to what's hidden, not clear and demands a different kind of appreciation. At the same time while I was reading some of his arguments sounded quite weird and deterministic such as relating the appreciation of shadows in Japan to a tinted undertone in the skin.
Thus I went into looking further into what it's written about this work and found really interesting interpretation that argue that Tanizaki's text has a strong sense of satire, especially towards other authors that had such an absolutiste view of what japanese culture was.
I don't get behind that the text is fully ironic as some aesthetic arguments really invites the reader to engage with the word in a different way, at the same time creating a complete duality between east and west where the east has a homogenous way of interacting with the world feels very reductive.
This short writing is quite an interesting read after In Praise of Shadows https://neojaponisme.com/2008/06/19/performance-of-east-west-discourses-in-tanizakis-in-praise-of-shadows/
