Junichiro Tanizaki's Naomi is both a hilarious story of one man's obsession and a brilliant reckoning of a nation's cultural confusion. When twenty-eight-year-old Joji first lays eyes upon the teenage waitress Naomi, he is instantly...

In Praise of Shadows laments the fading of traditional Japanese culture in the electric glare of Westernization. Tanizaki is at times funny (he celebrates outdoor toilets), aggravating (he meanders) and overwhelmingly lyrical (his...

A seductive psychological thriller about obsession, jealousy and deceit, and a Japanese classic Sonoko Kakiuchi is a cultured Osaka lady in an uninspiring marriage. They begin a passionate affair and Sonoko soon finds herself infatuated...

Junichiro Tanizaki's Seven Japanese Tales collects stories that explore the boundary at which love becomes self-annihilation, where the contemplation of beauty gives way to fetishism, and where tradition becomes an instrument of...