Session 10—Th, Feb 16: 昭和（戦前）：谷崎潤一郎、たにざきじゅんいちろう (1886-1965) (1 of 4)

Topics for this session

❖ 1910「刺青」 しせい

Thoughts*

"Shisei" is not of the Shōwa period (it is very late Meiji), but it shows important aspects of of Tanizaki in his pre-war writing period, before his move to Osaka.

Please remember that this story is set in the Edo period and so you should not take Tanizaki's written style in this piece as representative of fiction style of his time or even as his main personal style. (For example, this story is written at nearly the same time as 「笵の犯罪」 which, no doubt, you feel is somehow "modern".) Tanizaki is trying to evoke a certain languid context through a particular historical perspective (looking back at a time different from now) that then becomes the environment for sharp objects, acute pain and strong emotion.

Please consider the ramifications suggested by the parallels Tanizaki suggests between these two sets:

　• writer – brush – paper
　• tattoo artist – needle – skin

Oscar Wilde: "The secret of life is to appreciate the pleasure of being terribly, terribly deceived."

Required—to be completed for today's session

✓ Read「刺青」 from the beginning until the top row of paragraphs on page 345, at the end of the section there, so ending with the sentence that ends: 白い歯を見せて笑った。