This eloquent work on the Japanese sense of beauty explores the subtle interplay of shade and light in several important aspects of Japanese life - architecture, drama, food, femininity and literature - and traces the retreat of this mature, shadowy aesthetic tradition before the brighter, more garnish products of Western technology.

Junichiro Tanizaki, one of the most eloquent Japanese novelists, leads readers through 'darkness seen by candlelight' replete with a 'pregnancy of particles like fine, ashes, each particle as luminous as a rainbow'. His flowing, wandering meditation cannot fail to delight all lovers of the traditions of the East.