A fully illustrated, beautifully produced edition of Junichiro Tanizaki''s wise and evocative essay on Japanese culture.
-We find beauty not in the thing itself but in the patterns of shadows, the light and the darkness, that one thing against another creates- Were it not for shadows, there would be no beauty.-
This book is in fact a portal. Reading it, you will be led by Junichiro Tanizaki-s light touch into a mysterious and tranquil world of darkness and shadows, where gold flashes in the gloom and a deep stillness reigns. If you are accustomed to equate light with clarity, the faded with the worthless and the dim with the dreary, prepare for a courteous but powerful realignment of your ideas.
In Praise of Shadows is a poetic paean to traditional Japanese aesthetics - in a free-ranging style that moves from architecture to No theatre, and from cookery to lighting, Tanizaki teaches us to see the beauty in tarnished metal, the sombre dignit
