About the Author

JUN'ICHIRO TANIZAKI was born in central Tokyo in 1886. After becoming an overnight celebrity with his literary debut in 1910, he produced a steady stream of novels, short stories, essays, plays, poetry, and translations for the next fifty-five years. His versatility is further demonstrated by the film scenarios he wrote for a Yokohama studio in 1920-21. The 1923 Tokyo earthquake forced him to move to the Kansai region, where he chose to remain for most of the rest of his life. Trips to Korea and China in 1918 and to Shanghai in 1926 were his only overseas experiences. By 1948, when he completed The Makioka Sisters, he was widely considered the preeminent Japanese novelist. In 1949 he received the Order of Culture, the highest honor the emperor can bestow on an artist.

He married three times; his third wife, Matsuko, shared the last thirty years of his life. Even in his seventies he was still startling readers with audacious fiction like The Key and Diary of a Mad Old Man, and a year before his death in Atami in 1965 he was elected to the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, the first Japanese to be so honored.

Translations of his work began to appear as early as 1917, and by now his novels have been published in at least twenty different languages. Donald Keene's assessment appears to be coming true: "It is likely that if any one writer of the period will stand the test of time and be accepted as a figure of world stature, it will be Tanizaki."

ANTHONY H. CHAMBERS, Professor of Japanese at Arizona State University, has translated a number of classical and modern writers. His Tanizaki translations include Naomi, Arrowroot, The Reed Cutter, The Secret History of the Lord of Musashi, and Captain Shigemoto's Mother. He is the author of The Secret Window: Ideal Worlds in Tanizaki's Fiction.

PAUL McCARTHY, Professor of Comparative Cultures at Surugadai University, has translated Tanizaki's "The Little Kingdom," "Professor Rado," Childhood Years, and A Cat, a Man, and Two Women, which won the Japan-America Friendship Commission Prize. He has also translated Takeshi Umehara's Lotus and Other Tales of Medieval Japan and Zenno Ishigami's Disciples of the Buddha.

Reviews

"Tanizaki seems present in his fictional voluptuaries ... giving the impression ... he would rather rule in hell than serve in heaven." -The Daily Yomiuri

"The long awaited collection of six of Jun'ichiro Tanizaki's shorter works ... by two of the most eminent of Tanizaki's translators." -The Japan Times
"His fiction continues to draw us in through an intricate, masterly grasp of the psychology of male desire.... Excellent translators." -The Village Voice
..". a magician's knack for seizing the audience's attention quickly, leading us deeper and deeper into his world of shadows." -The Washington Post
"Tanizaki strings the reader along with oddities and quirky bits, finally concluding in a shattering and disturbing revelation." - Foreword Magazine
..". fascinating glimpses into the obscurer corners of [Tanizaki's] art." - The New York Times Book Review
..". overlooked treasures from a modern master." - St. Petersburg Times
"Translated ... wi

"Tanizaki seems present in his fictional voluptuaries ... giving the impression ... he would rather rule in hell than serve in heaven." -The Daily Yomiuri
"The long awaited collection of six of Jun'ichiro Tanizaki's shorter works ... by two of the most eminent of Tanizaki's translators." -The Japan Times
"His fiction continues to draw us in through an intricate, masterly grasp of the psychology of male desire.... Excellent translators." -The Village Voice
.,." a magician's knack for seizing the audience's attention quickly, leading us deeper and deeper into his world of shadows." -The Washington Post
"Tanizaki strings the reader along with oddities and quirky bits, finally concluding in a shattering and disturbing revelation." - Foreword Magazine
.,." fascinating glimpses into the obscurer corners of [Tanizaki's] art." - The New York Times Book Review
.,." overlooked treasures from a modern master." - St. Petersburg Times
"Translated ... with all the care and panache that the author himself would have appreciated." - Persimmon
Previous Praise for Tanizaki's Writing
"Even his lighter-hearted fictions ... make us hold our breath, and the endings don't let us quite exhale." "A relaxed rhythm and heft, a directness and simplicity suddenly condensing into poetry and symbol, an imaginative reach that even while encompassing twists of erotic oddity ... still seems robust." -John Updike, New Yorker
"The outstanding Japanese novelist of this century."-Edmund White, The New York Times Book Review
"World-class." -Christian Science Monitor
"The remarkable sensibility of a great artist." -Punch
"One of the greatest of twentieth-centurynovelists, of the rank of Thomas Mann." -New Statesman
"The writing is inventive, allusive, moving with assurance and skill." -Times Literary Supplement

"Tanizaki seems present in his fictional voluptuaries ... giving the impression ... he would rather rule in hell than serve in heaven." -The Daily Yomiuri
"The long awaited collection of six of Jun'ichiro Tanizaki's shorter works ... by two of the most eminent of Tanizaki's translators." -The Japan Times
"His fiction continues to draw us in through an intricate, masterly grasp of the psychology of male desire.... Excellent translators." -The Village Voice
, .." a magician's knack for seizing the audience's attention quickly, leading us deeper and deeper into his world of shadows." -The Washington Post
"Tanizaki strings the reader along with oddities and quirky bits, finally concluding in a shattering and disturbing revelation." - Foreword Magazine
, .." fascinating glimpses into the obscurer corners of [Tanizaki's] art." - The New York Times Book Review
, .." overlooked treasures from a modern master." - St. Petersburg Times
"Translated ... with all the care and panache that the author himself would have appreciated." - Persimmon
Previous Praise for Tanizaki's Writing

"Even his lighter-hearted fictions ... make us hold our breath, and the endings don't let us quite exhale." "A relaxed rhythm and heft, a directness and simplicity suddenly condensing into poetry and symbol, an imaginative reach that even while encompassing twists of erotic oddity ... still seems
robust." -John Updike, New Yorker
"The outstanding Japanese novelist of this century."-Edmund White, The New York Times Book Review
"World-class." -Christian Science Monitor
"The remarkablesensibility of a great artist." -Punch
"One of the greatest of twentieth-century novelists, of the rank of Thomas Mann." -New Statesman
"The writing is inventive, allusive, moving with assurance and skill." -Times Literary Supplement

"Tanizaki seems present in his fictional voluptuaries ... giving the impression ... he would rather rule in hell than serve in heaven." -The Daily Yomiuri
"The long awaited collection of six of Jun'ichiro Tanizaki's shorter works ... by two of the most eminent of Tanizaki's translators." -The Japan Times
"His fiction continues to draw us in through an intricate, masterly grasp of the psychology of male desire.... Excellent translators." -The Village Voice
.,." a magician's knack for seizing the audience's attention quickly, leading us deeper and deeper into his world of shadows." -The Washington Post
"Tanizaki strings the reader along with oddities and quirky bits, finally concluding in a shattering and disturbing revelation." - Foreword Magazine
.,." fascinating glimpses into the obscurer corners of [Tanizaki's] art." - The New York Times Book Review
.,." overlooked treasures from a modern master." - St. Petersburg Times
"Translated ... with all the care and panache that the author himself would have appreciated." - Persimmon
Previous Praise for Tanizaki's Writing
"Even his lighter-hearted fictions ... make us hold our breath, and the endings don't let us quite exhale." "A relaxed rhythm and heft, a directness and simplicity suddenly condensing into poetry and symbol, an imaginative reach that even while encompassing twists of erotic oddity ... still seems
robust." -John Updike, New Yorker
"The outstanding Japanese novelist of this century."-Edmund White, The New York Times Book Review
"World-class." -Christian Science Monitor
"The remarkable sensibility of a great artist." -Punch
"One of the greatest of twentieth-century novelists, ofthe rank of Thomas Mann." -New Statesman
"The writing is inventive, allusive, moving with assurance and skill." -Times Literary Supplement