Tanizaki Jun’ichirō

Tanizaki Jun’ichirō (1886-1965), Japanese novelist. Tanizaki's fiction is mainly concerned with the conflict between modern ideas of love and beauty and traditional values. His first short stories, among them “The Tattooer” (1910), show the influences of the French symbolists and the American short-story writer Edgar Allan Poe. Some Prefer Nettles (1929; trans. 1955), considered one of his best novels, juxtaposes an unhappy marital relationship against changing cultural values in Japan. The novel The Makioka Sisters (1943-48; trans. 1957) also concerns the encroachment of modern life on traditional values. His fiction written after World War II, for example, Diary of a Mad Old Man (1961-62; trans. 1965), marks a return to the erotic element of his earlier work. Tanizaki also wrote an influential manual of literary style (1934).