Junichiro Tanizaki

Jun'ichiro Tanizaki was a Japanese author who is considered one of the most prominent figures in modern Japanese literature. The tone and subject matter of his work range from shocking depictions of sexuality and destructive erotic obsessions to subtle portrayals of the dynamics of family life within the context of the rapid changes of twentieth-century Japanese society. His stories are often narrated as a search for cultural identity in which the West and Japanese tradition are juxtaposed, and he was one of six authors on the final shortlist for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1964.