In Dawn to the West, his “History of Japanese Literature” series, Japanologist Donald Keene, the eminent American-born scholar of Japanese literature, writes about the vividness of the works of Jun’ichirō Tanizaki, one of Japan’s most popular novelists:

No one would turn to Tanizaki for wisdom as to how a man should live his life, nor for a permanent analysis of the evils of modern society, but anyone seeking the special pleasure of literature and an echo in even his most bizarre works of eternal human concerns could hardly find a superior writer.