In Praise of Shadows is an essay written by Japanese author Junichiro Tanizaki in 1933. While he speaks mostly on the contrast between modern Western appliances and traditional Japanese aesthetics, there exists a deep search inwards in a culture that is going through great upheaval. The essay is an unfamiliar exploration of the familiar home and body. It is a glance into the interior world of Tanizaki and the undulations of a changing culture. Tanizaki laments that Japan is shifting over to Western beauty ideals that focus on transparency and bright lighting, and he explores the beauty of things best seen in shadow with a veil of tarnish. Tanizaki waxes poetic on the traditional Japanese toilet and lacquerware, objects that he believes flourish the most under shadows. He also explores the beauty of blackened teeth and holds up a time that seems to be standing still within his mind against a world that is in constant motion. 

         “With lacquerware, there is a beauty at the moment between removing the lid and lifting the bowl to the mouth when one gazes at the still, silent liquid in the dark depths of the bowl, its color hardly differing from that of the bowl itself. What lies within the darkness one cannot distinguish, but the palm senses the gentle movements of the liquid, vapor rises from within, forming droplets on the rim and the fragrance carried upon the vapor brings a delicate anticipation. What a world of difference there is between this moment and the moment when the soup is served Western style, in a pale, shallow bowl. A moment of mystery, it might almost be called a moment of trance.”

         For Tanizaki, beauty doesn’t lie in what can be seen outwardly but subtly undiscovered. The shadows of a room are more important for creating a moment of beauty than the perceived bare-all approach of Western culture. Tanizaki treats common household items in such a way that readers are forced to examine them. The toilet also receives this defamiliarizing treatment and becomes an object of strange sensuality,

         “A beautiful woman, no matter how lovely her skin, would be considered indecent were she to show her bare buttocks or feet in the presence of others; and how very crude and tasteless to expose the toilet to such excessive illumination. The cleanliness of what can be seen only calls up the more clear thoughts of what cannot be seen.”

         The world that Tanizaki is living in is changing rapidly, and the home, one of the most intimate places that can be carved out of the world, is changing as well. Our own world is changing at what feels like an accelerated rate, and at the end of the essay, it feels as if Tanizaki connects with our world nearly one hundred years later. Even then, there was a disconnect between the youth and the elderly. Young people are consistently better at adapting to and accepting changes within society and are often the vehicle for it. Even racial issues are examined in Tanizaki’s work, something that can feel especially relevant in 2020. It is difficult to understand how an essay written on Japanese versus Western aesthetics can have any sort of relevance to our lives, but we are all stuck at home and the home is exactly what Tanizaki initially focuses on. Tanizaki’s ability to explore how changes in homeware can be reflective of changes in society is precisely why Tanizaki so efficiently reaches across both time and culture. Human nature rarely changes. We see a society in a stage of metamorphosis through the eyes of someone who is reluctantly taking part in Tanizaki’s “In Praise of Shadows.” What better time than now to consider your home and yourself, and where your shadows are?