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Jun'ichirō Tanizaki Books

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“At a certain time, the father of this prince had served at the imperial court in Beijing, where his talents had won for him the favour of the Qianlong Emperor as well as the envy of his peers. His reward was a vast fortune that ostracized him from society, and later, when his only son was yet in his infancy, he quit this world entirely. Ashort while thereafter, the boy's mother followed in the footsteps of the father, and so the Prince, having been left an orphan, found himself quite naturally the sole heir to this veritable mountain of gold, silver and precious stones.”

WealthSuicideIsolation
Book:The Siren’s Lament: Essential Stories
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“At a certain time, the father of this prince had served at the imperial court in Beijing, where his talents had won for him the favour of the Qianlong Emperor as well as the envy of his peers. His reward was a vast fortune that ostracized him from society, and later, when his only son was yet in his infancy, he quit this world entirely. A short while thereafter, the boy's mother followed in the footsteps of the father, and so the Prince, having been left an orphan, found himself quite naturally the sole heir to this veritable mountain of gold, silver and precious stones.”

WealthSuicideBurdenIsolationOrphan
Author:Jun'ichirō Tanizaki
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“The people here had grown emaciated with hunger and toil, and the walls of their houses sighed with grief and sorrow. All the lovely flowers of this land had been transplanted to the palace to delight the eyes of the sovereign's consort, while the plump boars had been taken and served to please her sophisticated tastes. And so, the tranquil spring sun shone in vain on the grey, deserted streets of the city. And, perched atop a hill in the centre, the palace, shining with the five colours of the rainbow, towered over the corpse of the capital like a beast of prey.”

MetaphorTyrannyInequalityExploitationDesolation
Book:The Siren’s Lament: Essential Stories
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“People called Mother a beauty, when she was young. I remember her very well in those days—until I was fourteen or fifteen she was as beautiful as ever. When I compare that memory of her with Satsuko, the contrast is really striking. Satsuko is also called a beauty. That was the main reason why Jokichi married her. But between these two beauties, between the 1890’s and now, what a change has taken place in the physical appearance of the Japanese woman! For example, Mother’s feet were beautiful too, but Satsuko’s have an altogether different kind of beauty. They hardly seem to belong to a woman of the same race. Mother had dainty feet, small enough to nestle in the palm of my hand, and as she tripped along in her straw sandals she took extremely short, mincing steps with her toes turned in. (I am reminded that in my dream Mother’s feet were bare except for her sandals, even though she was dressed to go visiting. Perhaps she was deliberately showing off her feet to me.) All Meiji women had that pigeon-like walk, not just beauties. As for Satsuko’s feet, they are elegantly long and slender; she boasts that ordinary Japanese shoes are too wide for her. On the contrary, my mother’s feet were fairly broad, rather like those of the Bodhisattva of Mercy in the Sangatstudo in Nara. Also, the women of their day were short in stature. Women under five feet were not uncommon. Having been born in the Meiji era, I am only about five feet two myself, but Satsuko is an inch and a half taller.”

Japanese LiteratureFootbinding
Book:Diary of a Mad Old Man
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“When he heard people with no knowledge of a cat's character saying that cats were not as loving as dogs, that they were cold and selfish, he always thought to himself how impossible it was to understand the charm and lovableness of a cat if one had not, like him, spent many years living alone with one. The reason was that all cats are to some extent shy creatures: they won't show affection or seek it from their owners in front of a third person but tend rather to be oddly standoffish. Lily too would ignore Shozo or run off when he called her, if his mother were present. But when the two of them were alone, she would climb up on his lap without being called and devote the most flattering attention to him.”

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Book:A Cat, a Man, and Two Women: Stories
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