Empire of Japan · Literature
In Praise of Shadows
Jun'ichirō Tanizaki · 1933
Tanizaki builds an aesthetic philosophy through the same accretive method Shōnagon pioneered, cataloguing toilets, lacquerware, and the play of candlelight on gold leaf to argue that beauty lives in particularity. Both works refuse argument in favor of curated noticing, treating taste itself as the structure of thought.