In Praise of Shadows

by Jun'ichirō Tanizaki • 1933

"This is a powerfully anti-modernist book, yet contains the most beautiful evocation of the traditional Japanese aesthetic, which cast such a spell on Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Frank Lloyd Wright. "The contradiction is easily explained: Tanizaki sees the empty Japanese wall as not empty at all, but a surface on which light continually traces its fugitive presence against encroaching shadow. He constructs a myth of the origin of the Japanese house: it began with a roof and overhanging eaves, which cast a shadow on the earth, calling forth a shelter." Read more: http://www.bdonline.co.uk/story.asp?storycode=3159684&origin=BDweeklydigest#ixzz0iOulXDEW