Junichiro Tanizaki's Naomi is both a hilarious story of one man's obsession and a brilliant reckoning of a nation's cultural confusion.
When twenty-eight-year-old Joji first lays eyes upon the teenage waitress Naomi, he is instantly smitten by her exotic, almost Western appearance. Determined to transform her into the perfect wife and to whisk her away from the seamy underbelly of post-World War I Tokyo, Joji adopts and ultimately marries Naomi, paying for English and music lessons that promise to mold her into his ideal companion. But as she grows older, Joji discovers that Naomi...

An essay on aesthetics by the Japanese novelist, this book explores architecture, jade, food, and even toilets, combiningan acute sense of the use of space in buildings. The book also includes descriptions of laquerware under candlelight and women in the darkness of the house of pleasure."

Two short novels, published initially in the 1930s. Musashi deals with the dark obsessions of a 16th-century warlord. Arrowroot also touches on the pursuit of legend, but in a different mode, that of the uniquely Japanese form of the essay novel.

An essay on aesthetics. It explores architecture, jade, food, toilets, and combines an acute sense of the use of space in buildings, as well as perfect descriptions of lacquerware under candlelight and women in the darkness of the house of pleasure.

This tale of domestic oppression centres on the once prosperous, now declining, Makiota family which is struggling to marry off one of their daughters. A portrait of a family and society striving to preserve their self-respect in the face of change, as innovation and tradition clash.

The marriage of Kaname and Misako is disintegrating. Misako's father believes their relationship has been damaged by the influence of a new and alien culture, and attempts to heal the breach by educating his son-in-law in the Japanese traditions of aesthetic and sensual pleasure. The result is a conflict between ancient and modern, young and old.

While recovering from a stroke, seventy-seven-year-old Utsugi turns to his diary to wryly record his struggle with his ageing body and his growing desire for his beautiful daughter-in-law Satsuko, a chic, Westernised dancer with a shady past.

A diary of a middle-aged man who is in love with his younger wife, Ikuko. In spite of that love, the pair have grown physically apart, each unsure of the other's desires ...until the day Ikuko discovers her husband's diary with its desperate hints of jealousy and voyeurism. Ikuko realises she has found the key to his very soul.

Sonoko Kakiuchi is a cultured Osaka lady, unfortunately widowed young. This work presents a tale of infatuation and deceit, of eliberate evil. Its theme is humiliation, its victim Sonoko's mild-mannered husband.

Tells the story of four sisters, and the declining fortunes of a traditional Japanese family. This title presents a loving and nostalgic recreation of the sumptuous, intricate upper-class life of Osaka immediately before World War Two. With surgical precision, it lays bare the sinews of pride, and brings a vanished era to vibrant life.