In Praise of Shadows

Media:	Paperback
Author:	Junichiro Tanizaki, Charles Moore, Edward G. Seidensticker, Thomas J. Harper
Publisher:	Leetes Island Books
Release date:	01 January, 1980
Our price:	$7.95

In Praise of Shadows

Average rating: Stars

Wabi Sabi - not to be confused with "wasabi"

The Japanese have an aesthetic concept called "Wabi Sabi." This term consists of two words. "Wabi" literally means "poverty," but in the aesthetic context it stands for simplicity; "Sabi" is literally "solitude, loneliness," and for aesthetic purposes it means something like natural impermanence. Wabi Sabi encourages, as one observer put it, a profound feeling of inner melancholy, and an appreciation of quietly clear and calm, well-seasoned and refined simplicity.

Andrew Juniper's "Wabi Sabi: The Japanese Art of Impermanence" summarizes the concept by saying that "the term wabi-sabi suggests such qualities as impermanence, humility, asymmetry, and imperfection. These underlying principles are diametrically opposed to those of their Western counterparts, whose values are rooted in the Hellenic worldview that values permanence, grandeur, symmetry, and perfection. ... Wabi-sabi is an intuitive appreciation of a transient beauty in the physical world that reflects the irreversible flow of life in the spiritual world. It is an understated beauty that exists in the modest, rustic, imperfect, or even decayed, an aesthetic sensibility that finds a melancholic beauty in the impermanence of all things." (pages 2 and 51)

In order to appreciate Junichiro Tanizaki's 50-page pamphlet "In Praise of Shadows" it helps to keep the concept of Wabi Sabi in mind. While many people would object to Tanizaki's anti-modernist view of art (and call it "reactionary" or "nationalist"), it is in fact a contemporary take on an ancient aesthetic concept that favors obliqueness (shadows) over brightness, weathered naturalness over functional novelty, the crude over the polished, and - ultimately - irrationality over rationality.

Tanizaki's essay contains good examples of Wabi Sabi, and a few peculiarly funny ones that reek of Zen humor: "one could with some justice claim that of all the elements of Japanese architecture, the toilet is the most aesthetic. Our forebears, making poetry of everything in their lives, transformed what by rights should be the most unsanitary room in the house into a place of unsurpassed elegance, replete with fond associations with the beauties of nature." (page 4) To a Western reader this sounds like unmitigated satire. But it is not. Tanizaki is serious about this stuff.

In sum, I find "In Praise of Shadows" a very entertaining illustration of an important Japanese aesthetic concept, written by one of the most important Japanese authors of the 20th century. I bought the Leete's Island Books edition of the text, which I review here. Later I found that exactly the same translation is contained in Phillip Lopate's collection "The Art of the Personal Essay." It may be better value for money.

Of course, aesthetics are always a matter of taste. Speaking of which, "wasabi" - if you recall the title of this review - is Japanese horseradish.

In Praise of Shadows - Junichiro Tanizaki, Charles Moore, Edward G. Seidensticker, Thomas J. Harper

Had Japan developed its own science in harmony withDDD

Writing almost 70 years ago, Tanizaki put great value on an unique sense of beauty in Japan and regretted that it was disappearing as poeple were trying to follow the Western way of life. Tanizaki unhesitatingly admitted that the Western culture was in many respects superior to that of Japan, and that it was in a sense inevatble that Japan should imitate the Western lifestyle for the improvement of its living standard,and that in the process Japanese traditional lifestyle should be to some extent abandoned. But, he emphasized with deep emotion how different the things would have been had Japan developed its own science and technology consistent with its unique sense of beauty, and had it not been compelled to abandone some of its own traditions in favor of the Western lifestyle.

Junichiro Tanizaki, Charles Moore, Edward G. Seidensticker, Thomas J. Harper - In Praise of Shadows

Aesthetics, in a personal tone

The book is at once a praising of traditional Japanese beauty, and a mourning of the gradual disappearance of it (Tanizaki was 47 years old when its content was first published in 1933). But in my opinion it is foremost a contemplation on the "best way" to appreciate Japanese art (emphasis mine). The way he repeatedly speaks of in the text is "in shadows," where [Japanese] objects are free from the trivialization direct light subjugates them to, where objects reveal their natural gradation. Whether the object be a painting in a temple, lacquerware utensils in a restaurant, plated gold on walls, or even miso soup in a bowl, it is in shadows where Tanizaki finds those objects most beautiful.

Why the difference in taste between Westerners and Orientals (the translation makes use of the word Orientals over Asians)? Tanizaki attributes it to different characteristics, and ultimately to skin color:

"In my opinion it is this: we Orientals tend to seek our satisfactions in whatever surroundings we happen to find ourselves, to content ourselves with things as they are; and so darkness causes us no discontent, we resign ourselves to it as inevitable. If light is scarce then light is scarce; we will immerse ourselves in the darkness and there discover its own particular beauty. But the progressive Westerner is determined always to better his lot. From candle to oil lamp, oil lamp to gas light, gas light to electric light -- his quest for a brighter light never ceases, he spares no pains to eradicate even the minutest shadow...
"And so we see how profound is the relationship between shadows and the yellow races. Because no one likes to show himself to bad advantage, it is natural that we should have chosen cloudy colors for our food and clothing and houses, and sunk ourselves back into the shadows. I am not saying that our ancestors were conscious of the cloudiness in their skin. They cannot have known that a whiter race existed. But one must conclude that something in their sense of color led them naturally to this preference."

The book proceeds with anecdotes and observations. I found Tanizaki's exposition quiet (though others may disagree on this point -- I did not read much into the nationalistic sentiments others find so prevalent in this book), interesting, and congenial. My only regret in the book was with its size (it is merely over 50 pages). It would have been great if the text appeared instead as a chapter in a collection of essays by Tanizaki.

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