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Junichiro Tanizaki

たにざき じゅんいちろう

Tanizaki Jun'ichirō

Profile

Gender
Male
Born
1886-07-24 （Uguisudani, Hongo-ku, Tokyo, Japan）
Died
1965-07-30 （Honkomagome, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, Japan） age 79
Nationality
Japan
Languages
Japanese
Residence History
Uguisudani, Tokyo, Japan → Kobe, Hyogo, Japan → Yokohama, Japan

Career

Occupations
Novelist, Essayist
Active Years
1909-1965
Influenced By
Charles Dickens, Charles Baudelaire
Influenced
Yukio Mishima, Haruki Murakami

Education

First Higher School
Department of English Literature / Department of English Literature
Period: 1904-1909
Year of Graduation: 1909
Country: Japan
Withdrew due to health issues

Awards

Yomiuri Literary Prize
1949
Work: The Makioka Sisters
Organization: Yomiuri Shimbun
Result: won
Order of Culture
1955
Organization: Government of Japan
Result: won

Awards & Nominations

Works

Major Works

The Makioka Sisters

1948 Novel 720 pages

A story of four sisters from a traditional Osaka family.

FamilyTraditionWomen
Adaptations
  • [Film] The Makioka Sisters / 市川崑 (1983)
Translations
  • Translated by Edward Seidensticker

The Story of Shunkin

1933 Novella 160 pages

Depicts the forbidden love between the blind geisha Shunkin and her apprentice.

LoveSacrificeBeauty
Adaptations
  • [Film] Shunkinsho / 木下恵介 (1968)
Translations
  • Translated by Kaoru Yamamoto

Bibliography

  • The Tattooer
  • Naomi
  • The Story of Shunkin
  • The Makioka Sisters

Adaptations

  • The Makioka Sisters (Film, dir. Kon Ichikawa, 1983)
  • Shunkinsho (Film, dir. Keisuke Kinoshita, 1968)

Translations of Works

  • English Edition
  • French Edition
  • Chinese Edition

Style & Themes

Literary Style
AestheticismDetailed description
Recurring Motifs
Maternal figuresTradition vs Modernity

Health

  • Tuberculosis
    1911-1914
    Affected his writing activities

Legacy

A representative of modern Japanese literature and a leading figure in aestheticism.

Museums

  • Junichiro Tanizaki Memorial Museum Wakae-kitamachi, Higashiosaka, Osaka, Japan Opened in 1998

Academic Societies

  • Junichiro Tanizaki Society

Archives

  • National Institute of Japanese Literature
  • Waseda University Library

In Popular Culture

  • The Makioka Sisters has influenced numerous works as a classic Japanese film

Quotes

  • In Praise of Shadows
    Source: Essay 'In Praise of Shadows' (1933)
  • I have always sought the beauty of Japanese tradition.
    Source: Autobiography (1955)

Trivia

  • There is a Junichiro Tanizaki Memorial Museum in Osaka.
  • 'Naomi' inspired the term 'Naomi boom' in Japan.