This is the long-awaited collection of six of Jun'ichiro Tanizaki's shorter works, given us by two of the most eminent of Tanizaki's translators. Including work as early as 1911 and as late as 1955, this volume encompasses some 45 years in the career of one of Japan's greatest modern writers.
Tanizaki's novels are well-known, but some of his finest works are his stories, few of which have ever been translated. The earliest included here is the 1911 "Shonen" (translated by Anthony Chambers as "The Children"), a famous text about how children really play with each other, here serving as a curtain raiser to other stories displaying the author's full-blown interest in what doctors call sadomasochistic sex.
The 1911 "Himitsu" appears in Chambers' revised translation (the first version appeared in the University of Michigan's 1993 tribute to Edward Seidensticker, "New Leaves") as "The Secret." The secret is that the protagonist hides his gender under the kimono of a traditional Japanese woman, doing so partly so that he can continue his affair with a real Japanese woman.