"As one lets that cool, silken piece melt within their mouth, it is as if the darkness of the room has gathered into a single, bittersweet drop, slowly dissolving on the tongue. Even a modest piece of yokan, not particularly refined, seems to reveal an unexpected depth of taste." (Excerpt) – Observing the fundamental contrasts with Western aesthetics, this work explores the essence of Japanese beauty within the shadows and the unlit spaces.
NB: the book has six essays: 陰翳礼讃／懶惰の説／恋愛及び色情／客ぎらい／旅のい...
This is a book collecting six of Tanizaki's non-fiction essays, starting off with the famous title essay 陰翳礼讃, which has been translated into English as "In Praise of Shadows".
Tanizaki's prose style is pretty difficult for a language learner, both in his vocabulary choices and in orthographical choices like use of kanji for "grammar" words that are more usually written in kana in more modern texts. However I felt it was rich enough to reward taking it at a slow pace, re-reading tricky sentenc