In Praise of Shadows

In Praise of Shadows is an essay by the Japanese novelist Jun'ichiro Tanizaki, published in Japanese in 1933 under the title In'ei Raisan, examining Japanese aesthetics through the interplay of light and shadow across architecture, lacquerware, cuisine, theater and everyday domestic objects. Tanizaki contrasts a Western pursuit of brightness and clarity with an East Asian sensibility that finds beauty in subtlety, patina and shadow, discussing subjects as varied as traditional toilets, candlelit lacquerware and the aesthetic of mono no aware, the pathos of impermanence, to argue that modern electric lighting was eroding a distinctively Japanese visual and material culture. Translated into English in 1977 with a foreword by the architect Charles Moore, the essay has become a widely read touchstone in architecture and design circles internationally for its meditation on the cultural specificity of taste and its case for the aesthetic value of dimness against the modern presumption in favor of light.