born July 24, 1886, Tokyo, Japan
died July 30, 1965, Yugawara
Japanese novelist.
Though his earliest short stories have affinities with those of Edgar Allan Poe and the French Decadents , Tanizaki later turned to exploring more traditional Japanese ideals of beauty. His novels include Some Prefer Nettles (192829), which tells of marital unhappiness that is in fact a conflict between the new and the old, with the implication that the old will win; and his masterpiece, The Makioka Sisters (194348; film, 1983), which describes, in the leisurely style of classical Japanese literature, the inroads of the harsh modern world on traditional society. His writings are characterized by eroticism and ironic wit.