Light vs. Shadow

In 1933, Jun'ichirō Tanizaki published In Praise of Shadows, an essay on Japanese aesthetics. Light, associated with Western cultures, opposed to shadow, associated with Asian cultures. L'éloge de l'ombre in French. A very interesting essay written at a time when electricity was slowly replacing fire in traditional houses.
Jun'ichirō Tanizaki, published his first work, in 1910, aged 24, in a magazine he co-founded with friends. It was a short story, called Tattoo, that caught the attention of Mori Ōgai, romantic, considered one of the leading writers of the Meiji period who modernized Japanese literature, and Nagai Kafū, naturalist, who depicted life in early 20th-century Tokyo, especially among geisha, prostitutes, cabaret dancers, and other denizens of the city's lively entertainment districts.