Jun'ichirō Tanizaki

On 1 September 1923, the day that the Great Kanto earthquake struck the regions of Tokyo and Yokohama, Junichiro Tanizaki was staying in at Hakone, a hot springs resort west of Tokyo. Years later he would admit that, almost before he thought to feel concern for those dear to him, a perverse surge of excitement arose in him: Tokyo, too long held in the shadows of its Edo past would be reborn, “Tokyo will be better for this!…I imagined the grandeur of the new metropolis, and all the changes that would

Both “Naomi” and “The neighbor’s wife and mine” are representative stories of westernization of Japanese culture. Naomi was written by Junichiro Tanizaki and published in newspaper in 1924. It demonstrates aestheticism and created the word naomism that represents the modern girl. The neighbor’s wife and mine is also a story that shows how Japanese people were longing to be like westerners. Both are stories of transition from classic Japanese culture to modern western style culture. I would like to