Tanizaki Junichiro - Definition and Overview

Junichiro Tanizaki (谷崎潤一郎 Tanizaki Jun'ichirō, July 24, 1886 - July 30, 1965) was a Japanese author.

Tanizaki was one of the major writers of modern Japanese literature, and remains perhaps the most popular Japanese novelist after Natsume Soseki. In his early years he was infatuated with the West and all things modern, living in a Western-style house in Yokohama, the foreign expatriate suburb of Tokyo, and leading a decidedly bohemian lifestyle. He was first published in 1910 but his reputation really began to take off when he moved to Kyoto after the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923. The move triggered a change in his enthusiasms, as he abandoned his youthful love for the West and modernity, and became absorbed in traditional Japanese culture, particularly the culture of the Kansai region comprising Osaka, Kobe and Kyoto. The change in his attitudes can be seen best in his masterpiece "Sasameyuki" ("A Light Snowfall", published in English as "The Makioka Sisters"), a tale about four daughters of a waning Osaka merchant family. Though his early novels paint a rich atmosphere of 1920s Tokyo and Osaka, during the 1930s Tanizaki turned away from contemporary affairs to write about Japan's feudal past, perhaps as a reaction to the growing mood of militarism in society and politics. After World War II Tanizaki again emerged into literary prominence, winning a host of awards and until his death regarded as Japan's greatest living author. Most of his works are highly sensual in nature, a few particularly centering around eroticism but are laced with wit and ironic sophistication.

His works include:

• Naomi (Japanese: 知人の愛 Chijin no Ai) (1923)
• Some Prefer Nettles (1929)
• Arrowroot (1931)
• Ashikari (1932)
• A Portrait of Shunkin (1932)
• The Secret History of the Lord of Musashi (1935)
• The Makioka Sisters (Japanese: 細雪 Sasameyuki) (1943-1948)
• Quicksand (Japanese: 卍 Manji) (1947)
• Captain Shigemoto's Mother (1949)
• The Key (Japanese: 鍵 Kagi) (1956)
• Diary of an Old Man (1961)

The article incorporates text from OpenHistory.