Fumiko's Feet

by Jun'ichirō Tanizaki, 谷崎潤一郎, Christina Lee (Translator)

First published in Yūben (Eloquence) literary magazine in 1919, “Fumiko’s Feet” tells the tale of a young artist and an old man whose unlikely friendship is built upon the foundation of a shared foot fetish.

Despite Tanizaki’s worldwide prominence as a face of Japanese literature, the fact that “Fumiko’s Feet” remains untranslated and virtually unknown in the West is nothing short of a mystery, considering its renown in Japan. Recently adapted into film by Ueda Atsushi, this story of an old man’s obsession with his mistress’ beautiful feet is considered one of Tanizaki’s representative works in his homeland, if not also the apotheosis of his career-long foot fetish.

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First published June 1, 1919

About the author

Jun'ichirō Tanizaki (谷崎 潤一郎) was a Japanese author, and one of the major writers of modern Japanese literature, perhaps the most popular Japanese novelist after Natsume Sōseki.

Some of his works present a rather shocking world of sexuality and destructive erotic obsessions; others, less sensational, subtly portray the dynamics of family life in the context of the rapid changes in 20th-century Japanese society.

Frequently his stories are narrated in the context of a search for cultural identity in which constructions of "the West" and "Japanese tradition" are juxtaposed. The results are complex, ironic, demure, and provocative.