Book Review: In Praise of Shadows
The shadows are where all things sinister like to hide. Deep in the corner of the room, under the bed, down a dark and mysterious alley shadows lurk, shift, and invite you in. But what if shadows brough out the beauty of light? The beauty of bygone days, where the dark illuminates our appreciation of objects d’arte, theatre, performance, architecture, and design. Shadows aren’t where the danger lurks, shadows are used to change our perceptions of light and what we consider light.
Junchiro Tanizaki takes us through a portal of time and space, through the marvels of Japanese architecture, design, theatre, and the perception of beauty all through the lingering ephemeral shadows. This week’s author rejects westernisation of the electric light shining gaudily on Japanese tradition and culture and looks to the darkness, longingly for the loss of beauty. Words are incapable of how the journey from something as simple as Miso soup to the beauty of a No theatre performers hands are. Why do the Japanese appreciate lacquer? Why do they like the depth and darkness of candlelight? Because shadows give to beauty what westerners think takes away: a soul. The depth of shadows in a simple lacquer box are the heart and soul of the artist building and creating his craft. The gold leaf walls inside temples, may seem gaudy to some, but in the traditional candlelight, the gold shines brighter than any modern electric light could do. Light and shadow are a beautiful marriage of opposites that is no less sinister than the modern-day toilet (according to Tanizaki). This short novella of a book teaches the west about finding beauty in what we once feared, it is a celebration of all things Japanese, a look into a floating world that is slowly shrinking under the bright neon lights of the everyday.
The absolute rejection of Westernisation, is, for Tanizaki, a must. Having lived through both World Wars the modern was thrust upon him as a glowing example of what is right and what is wrong, what a person’s country should be like and what progress and a post- war shining beacon of hope is. but it is too much because the beacon is eradicating the glories of his own culture and his own past. They are becoming overshadowed. So this epic ode to shadows is a to Japan.
Tanizaki evokes wonder and an almost religious appreciation of shadows, one that could convert every reader. The shadows and the dark help us appreciate where we see the light. If only the Western reader could appreciate the beauty of it.