[3.5] My first experience with Tanizaki was his essay “In praise of shadows” which was one of my favourite reads of that year. It questioned Western influence in Japan, in this case the West’s impact on Japanese architecture.

It’s interesting to read the book’s note on the author and see how Tanizaki’s relationship with the West changed. How he “became absorbed in the Japanese past” and “abandoned his superficial westernization” after the earthquake of 1923.

Beyond that this book was weird, it portrayed an interesting time in Japanese history but I never knew how to feel about the characters. Some of the descriptions made me exceedingly uncomfortable but the writing was clear and easy to read.