Inspirational Quotations

Inspirational Quotes by Tanizaki Jun’ichiro (Japanese Novelist)

Jun’ichirō Tanizaki (1886–1965) was a Japanese novelist, essayist, and playwright known for his portrayal of unusual psychological situations taken from a sharp observation of real life. Throughout his fiction run strains of eroticism and lyricism.

Born in Tokyo, Tanizaki studied Eastern and Western classical literature in university but left in 1910 without a degree. The same year, he published his first short novel, Shisei (The Tattooer,) which attracted attention by its similarities with contemporary European trends and the works of Edgar Allan Poe and Charles Baudelaire. The other early novels, such as Otsuya-goroshi (1915,) confirmed Tanizaki as a writer of stature. In 1922 his plays Ai surebakoso and Eienno gūzō appeared, followed by Mumyō to Aizen (1924,) all three of which were soon translated into French.

Under pressure to absorb and express his infatuation with Japanese culture and his past, Tanizaki moved to Osaka after the great Tokyo earthquake of 1923. There, he wrote his most excellent work, Tade kū mushi (1929; Some Prefer Nettles, 1955,) which deliberated the new in Japanese traditional values regarding personal relations. He continued that theme in the long novel Sasame-yuki (1948; The Makioka Sisters, 1957.)

Tanizaki continued to write provocatively until his death. His later novels, Kagi (The Key, 1957,) Yume no ukihashi (The Bridge of Dreams, 1959,) and Fūten rojin nikki (Diary of a Mad Old Man, 1962.)

Tanizaki’s general reputation as a literary celebrity has been tarnished by his initial self-indulgent lifestyle, his overruling hedonism, and excesses that included his highly publicized ill-treatment of his wife.

More: Wikipedia READ: Works by Tanizaki Jun’ichiro

The heart of mine is only one, it cannot be known by anybody but myself.
Tanizaki Jun’ichiro

There are those who hold that to quibble over matters of taste in the basic necessities of life is an extravagance.
Tanizaki Jun’ichiro

We can’t make a decision between being sad for a little while and being wretched for the rest of our lives. Or rather we’ve made the decision and have trouble finding the courage to carry it through.
Tanizaki Jun’ichiro

If light is scarce then light is scarce; we will immerse ourselves in the darkness and there discover its own particular beauty.
Tanizaki Jun’ichiro

There are those who say that when civilization progresses a bit further transportation facilities will move into the skies and under the ground, and that our streets will again be quiet, but I know perfectly well that when that day comes some new device for torturing the old will be invented.
Tanizaki Jun’ichiro

The older we get the more we seem to think that everything was better in the past.
Tanizaki Jun’ichiro

But when Kaname asked: “Would you like to separate, then?” Misako answered: “Would you?” They knew that divorce was the solution, and yet neither had the courage to propose it, each was left face to face with his own weakness.
Tanizaki Jun’ichiro

Once you start doubting, it’s hard to know what to believe.
Tanizaki Jun’ichiro

The quality that we call beauty … must always grow from the realities of life.
Tanizaki Jun’ichiro

Often a hungry person will wolf down unpalatable food; but as his stomach swells, he’ll suddenly notice how bad the food is and fell nauseated.
Tanizaki Jun’ichiro

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