Jun’ichiro Tanizaki
Leete’s Island Books, New Haven, CT, 1977; originally published 1939 (in Japanese), English
Design, General; Nonfiction, Art and Cultural History
5.8 x 9 inches, paperback 48 pages
ISBN: 9780918172020
Suggested Retail Price: $9.95
On 10 book lists
David Adjaye

Essential reading for an understanding of the nature of space in Japanese culture.

Craig Dykers

A small yet engaging alternative to the traditional Western image of cleanliness being next to godliness.

Akiko Fukai

Theory of Japanese culture written in 1933 by an acclaimed Japanese novelist who considered shadows the core of Japanese aesthetics.

Tom Kundig

This has been an important book for my career. I’ve read it multiple times—it continues to be meaningful and I don't expect that will change. Shadows are more important than objects because they enter the realm of the mysterious. The white space is more important than the stroke of the pen. Shadows are the silent reason that objects are recognized; they give them shape. Shadows represent the soul of a place or object. To say it another way, the space between combatants is where the battle takes place.

This book was a touchstone for me when I was designing Shadowboxx, on Lopez Island in the San Juans. The house’s shutters and doors create layers that can either protect or expose, and the moving parts create a drama of shadow and light. It’s really hard to capture that in a photograph—you really have to be in the space to understand it.

Giuseppe Lignano

The fantastic tension between the perfection of imperfection and the imperfection of perfection is probably the greatest contribution of Japanese culture to modern/contemporary aesthetic culture. This tension is what LOT-EK’s pathos is all about.

Paul Marantz

The lighting designer’s basic text.

Ian Ritchie

As light had always been the material of architecture for me, and about which I was increasingly passionate, this book appealed because it presented the subtlety of light’s absence.

Marco Romanelli

The silence, the shadow, the lacquer, the beauty, the water, the garden, and the lesson that one flower is often enough.

Ada Tolla

The fantastic tension between the perfection of imperfection and the imperfection of perfection is probably the greatest contribution of Japanese culture to modern/contemporary aesthetic culture. This tension is what LOT-EK’s pathos is all about.

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