This slim manifesto on Japanese aesthetics is alternately beautiful and sardonic. ( )

explains the aesthetics in Japan ( )

In the west people tend to emphasize light in their environment... big windows, skylights. Shiny, gleaming surfaces are important and appear clean and fresh. Tanizaki wrote this short book to explain the importance of shadow and darkness in oriental culture... shadows that have been chased away with the welcomed technology of the west.

This is an essay on the aesthetics of shadows, on some of the differences between the west and the east. Tanizaki's text flows from one topic to another almost dreamlike and ranges over architecture, jade, food, skin tone, and toilets.

Every time I am shown to an old, dimly lit, and, I would add, impeccably clean toilet in a Nara or Kyoto temple, I am impressed with the singular virtues of Japanese architecture. The parlor may have its charms, but the Japanese toilet truly is a place of spiritual repose. It always stands apart from the main building, at the end of a corridor, in a grove fragrant with leaves and moss. No words can describe that sensation as one sits in the dim light, basking in the faint glow reflected from the shoji, lost in meditation or gazing out at the garden. The novelist Natsume Soseki counted his morning trips to the toilet a great pleasure, 'a physiological delight' he called it. And surely there could be no better place to savor this pleasure than a Japanese toilet where, surrounded by tranquil walls and finely grained wood, one looks out upon blue skies and green leaves. ( )

Tanizaki discusses the role that darkness plays in the Japanese aesthetic and the jarring realization that light (influenced by Western architecture) forces upon objects and styles created in and meant to be viewed in low-light. Although he recognizes the utility that modern architecture and lighting brings to a room, he laments the loss of "visible darkness." Like the silences of John Cage, darkness is a presence, a tangible object of beauty rather than an absence. His meditation flows from discussions of architecture to women, from calligraphy to history, and from theatre to food. ( )

This was a fascinating and quick read. The author has an interesting viewpoint. ( )