16 thoughts on “In Praise of Shadows”

    1. I also loved this book when I read it for a class with William Gass more than 20 years ago. While the American edition then sported a ‘naked’ lightbulb hanging in front of a piece of plywood, what I remember most is not the criticism of western lighting but the “praise of shadows” that make many Japanese objects look so much better. The Japanese aesthetics, Tanizaki seems to say, work best in dim light. The book opened my eyes to the crucial role light playes in the aethetics of everyday things. If all that is so, my picture might not be literal…

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