In Praise of Shadows Junichiro Tanizaki
Were it not for shadows, there would be no beauty".
To understand Tanizaki manifest is imperative to understand the Japanese culture and the value of the used, the tradition, simplicity and the value of the atmosphere that the nature itself present us.
Japanese Culture has always delighted me, they enough clever to recognize humanity as a unity with the universe and never try to compete with it. Tanizaki is a great writer on Japanese culture and describe so perfectly their traditions in their books that you can get lost in that narrations, that is why he became to be one of my favorite writers. Maybe I am a romantic after all, and the perceptions of beauty that human kind express about it are my inspirations and reasons to dream and fantasy.
In the manifesto, the shadow is present as the essence of design. Is the element that conjugate all objects in a room, it also talks about light because obviously without light there will be no shadows. Thanks to the shadow the perception of design is special.
"We find beauty not in the thing itself but in the patterns of shadows, the light and the darkness, that one thing against another creates... Were it not for shadows, there would be no beauty".