Junichiro Tanizaki (Japanese: 湯地屋 直樹; 7 January 1886 – 25 February 1965) was a Japanese novelist, poet and critic. He is best known for his novel "In Praise of Shadows" ("Karekiyo no uta"), which has been translated into English by Donald Keene. Tanizaki was born in Kyoto to a wealthy family of Confucian scholars. He entered the prestigious Kyoto University at the age of fifteen, where he studied philosophy and literature, but he dropped out after two years, moved to Tokyo, and married a distant cousin. He then became the editor of the literary magazine "Mizuya" ("Seawater") which was launched in 1903. After his first novel, "Bushi no soshi" ("Samurai's Inn"), was rejected by several major publishing houses, he began to write for other magazines. In 1914 Tanizaki's first collection of poems was published
He joined the faculty of the University of Tokyo in 1918 and became a full professor in 1921. He did not achieve much recognition during his lifetime except for "Shimotsuma", which won the Akutagawa Prize in 1925. However, many of his novels are still widely read today.
Among them are "Intimacy", "The Makioka Sisters", "The Temple" and "The Setting Sun". After World War II, Tanizaki spent much time abroad in Europe and North America. His last major work was "Tsukioka Yoshitoshi" ("Tsukioka Yoshitsune"), which was published posthumously in Japan in 1970. His grave is at the temple Kiyomizudera in Kyoto.
Find beauty not only in the thing itself but in the pattern of the shadows, the light and dark which that thing provides.Junichiro Tanizaki
We Orientals find beauty not only in the thing itself but in the pattern of the shadows, the light and darkness which that thing provides.Junichiro Tanizaki
