Tag - junichiro-tanizaki

 
 

JUNICHIRO TANIZAKI

Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Jun 2, 2022
Revisiting Jun'ichiro Tanizaki’s flawed families in 'Longing and Other Stories'
The centerpiece of 'Longing and Other Stories' is 'Sorrows of a Heretic,' which can be viewed as a self-deprecating satire thanks to the narcissism of its protagonist.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Jan 8, 2022
Exciting translations and books about Japan to bookmark for 2022
From Yoko Tawada's “Scattered All Over the Earth” to Sayaka Murata's “Life Ceremony,” this year's new releases are sure to brighten up your 2022.
Japan Times
JAPAN / History / THE LIVING PAST
Mar 22, 2021
Archetypes of the 'modern girl' from Japan's 'jazz age'
People thronged European-style cafes and breathed new air with new lungs. At the center of it all were the 'mobo' and 'moga': modern boys and girls, respectively.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Aug 8, 2020
‘Diary of a Mad Old Man’: This quick read reveals the realities of lust
Junichiro Tanizaki's final novel is a tragicomic tale about a man coming to terms with his ailing body and uncontrollable libido.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books / ESSENTIAL READING FOR JAPANOPHILES
Jan 11, 2020
'Childhood Years': Junichiro Tanizaki's precious memories of Tokyo
Autobiographies tend to reveal only as much as the subject chooses to share. Here, Junichiro Tanizaki is surprisingly forthright in detailing his inner life, especially those pertaining to the germination of his sexuality.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books / RECENTLY PUBLISHED BOOKS ABOUT JAPAN
Jan 3, 2020
Japanese Classics series: Vintage Classics gives timeless Japanese literature a look for the new decade
The new Japanese Classics series from Vintage Classics presents five seminal Japanese novels, from Junichiro Tanizaki to Yoko Ozawa, with stunning cover art by Japanese illustrator Yuko Shimizu.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books / RECENTLY PUBLISHED BOOKS ABOUT JAPAN
Jun 8, 2019
'Modern Japanese Short Stories' review: A bridge between past and present
A classic introduction to the Japanese short story, 'Modern Japanese Short Stories' is a literary time capsule of postwar Japan.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Jun 23, 2018
'The Penguin Book of Japanese Short Stories': Memorable shorts from the greats of modern literature
From Haruki Murakami to Natsume Soseki, 'The Penguin Book of Japanese Short Stories' serves up a feast of literature, a smorgasbord of over 30 widely varied modern Japanese writers.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books / ESSENTIAL READING FOR JAPANOPHILES
Mar 24, 2018
'Quicksand': A racy transition from old Tanizaki to new
A young lady from Osaka begins to attend an art class and, while painting a picture of the Kannon (the goddess of mercy), substitutes the head for that of a beguiling student. Soon, she is drawn into a complex web of lesbian passion, pitted against the social norms of marriage in a deadly game that will engulf both the women and their male partners.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Dec 2, 2017
Yasunari Kawabata's surrealist window on the world
Opening with one of the most famous lines in Japanese literature — "Emerging from the long border tunnel, they entered snow country," shifting us at speed from the darkness of the tunnel into the bright light of the snow — Yasunari Kawabata's novel "Snow Country" tells of a city-dwelling, worldly aesthete Shimamura who travels to an onsen (hot springs) retreat in winter and resumes his casual affair with Komako, a beautiful young "mountain geisha," a rustic panderer to male desire.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Nov 18, 2017
'Red Roofs and Other Stories': Tales of restlessness by Junichiro Tanizaki
Junichiro Tanizaki is best known for his novels, "Naomi" and "The Makioka Sisters," and is widely considered one of Japan's greatest writers of modern literature. This collection of his early stories "Red Roofs & Other Stories," published between 1917 and 1926, begins with a novella-like story that alludes to Robert Louis Stevenson's "Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde," as well as Edgar Allan Poe's "The Cask of Amontillado."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Sep 23, 2017
'Devils in Daylight' and 'The Maids': The literary sleuthing of Junichiro Tanizaki
Question: Is it really the case that for a large part of the 20th century Japan enjoyed a golden age of literature? Or is this just misty-eyed nostalgia?
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books / The critics who shaped modern Japan
Aug 5, 2017
Junichiro Tanizaki: Speaking to the light from the shadows
In 1933, when Junichiro Tanizaki (1886-1965) published his short but landmark essay "In Praise of Shadows," it could hardly be seen as anything other than a riposte to the "enlightening" agenda of the great cultural critic Fukuzawa Yukichi of the preceding Meiji Era (1868-1912).
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Nov 6, 2015
Junichiro Tanizaki's sexual exploits; romantic adolescents; CM of the week: Nissan
This year marks the 50th anniversary of the death of novelist Junichiro Tanizaki, whose best works were published in the 1930s and 40s. Tanizaki was Japan's most accomplished writer about sex, and much of what he wrote was based on experience.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books / ESSENTIAL READING FOR JAPANOPHILES
May 23, 2015
Richard Brautigan worships Japanese women in 'Sombrero Fallout'
Richard Brautigan dedicated "Sombrero Fallout" — his seventh novel, published in 1976 — to writer Junichiro Tanizaki. Indeed, he echoes Tanizaki in the worship of his protagonist, a Japanese woman named Yukiko. "She had a beautiful laugh which was like rain water pouring over daffodils made from silver," writes Brautigan.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Apr 25, 2015
Sexual obsession stimulated Junichiro Tanizaki's writing
A 55-year-old science lecturer is found naked on a university campus. His student lover has made him strip as a show of devotion — "Get naked to show me your love," she reportedly demanded — and then scampered off with his clothes. The lecturer resigns, apologizes for "causing considerable trouble," and returns to living with the student.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books / ESSENTIAL READING FOR JAPANOPHILES
Nov 22, 2014
In Praise of Shadows
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Aug 30, 2014
Inside author David Mitchell's metaphysical mind
Outside the vista windows of the Hotel New Otani's Garden Lounge cafe in Tokyo, it's snowing, in March, and it suddenly feels like the spring flowers in the Japanese garden below may have popped too soon. David Mitchell wonders aloud what kind of flowers they are, before returning to our discussion.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Aug 30, 2014
The Makioka Sisters
Junichiro Tanizaki may be best known for novels featuring protagonists with odd obsessions, but his masterpiece, family epic "The Makioka Sisters," has been hailed by many as Japan's greatest modern novel.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Jun 14, 2014
Ghostly footprints of the 'modern girl' along Kamakura's coastline
There's a scene in Junichiro Tanizaki's serialized novel "Naomi" (originally titled "A Fool's Love") from 1924 where the besotted protagonist, Joji, watches his wife, Naomi — part Lolita, part Madame Bovary, all trouble — through the pine trees. Having just emerged from a seaside villa, she is sashaying across the sand in nothing more than a cloak and high heels; the pied piper to no less than four men. The beach is Kamakura's Yuigahama, which was a draw for moga — the new so-called modern girls who emerged after the 1923 Tokyo earthquake shook up the city and its culture. (The term "Naomi-ism" was also used at the time to describe the new phenomenon of modern girls, but I guess that one didn't stick.)

Longform

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