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刺青
《刺青：谷崎潤一郎短篇小說精選集》由權威日本文學教授暨資深譯者林水福教授主編翻譯，收錄谷崎最早期創作的五篇短篇小說：
〈刺青〉中對女人美麗的執著
〈祕密〉暗示著之後大正時期谷崎文學的方向性
〈惡魔〉被視為惡魔主義文學
〈神童〉裡的文學自覺部分，濃厚反映作者自傳的要素
〈富美子之足〉可見對腳的細微觀察與偏執
《刺青：谷崎潤一郎短篇小說精選集》顯示了谷崎潤一郎勇於嘗試的書寫方式，作品風格數變，於此即可窺知一二。然而從他第一篇創作〈刺青〉開始，便有著貫穿一生寫作態度的女性崇拜信念，乃至後世推崇的《痴人之愛》、《春琴抄》、《瘋癲老人日記》等，無不由此而生。
〈刺青〉中對女人美麗的執著
〈祕密〉暗示著之後大正時期谷崎文學的方向性
〈惡魔〉被視為惡魔主義文學
〈神童〉裡的文學自覺部分，濃厚反映作者自傳的要素
〈富美子之足〉可見對腳的細微觀察與偏執
《刺青：谷崎潤一郎短篇小說精選集》顯示了谷崎潤一郎勇於嘗試的書寫方式，作品風格數變，於此即可窺知一二。然而從他第一篇創作〈刺青〉開始，便有著貫穿一生寫作態度的女性崇拜信念，乃至後世推崇的《痴人之愛》、《春琴抄》、《瘋癲老人日記》等，無不由此而生。
256 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1910
18 people are currently reading
713 people want to read
About the author
Jun'ichirō Tanizaki
594 books2,177 followersJun'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.
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.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 71 reviews
September 12, 2025
Art and sacrifice go hand in hand in Japanese tradition, it is often said that there is hardly any Japanese who has not hear one or other story of sacrifice in Japan. Japanese tradition and art have been built upon the themes of aesthetics wherein most revered forms of art draw inspiration from the beauteous seeds of culture and grace. However, we have also seen that sacrifice too has been an integral part of Japanese tradition, it invariably draws one’s notice towards human sacrifice such as Seppuku and inevitably reminds me of Mishima, and my mind immediately goes to the deep crevices of memories to bring up the reminiscences of Patriotism for reliving them, in which the protagonist takes the fervor and passion of his life to his reverent and consecrated sacrifice.
We can hardly imagine Japanese tradition without mentioning of art since the generality always gives in to particularity. Humanity always carries its share of darkness inside its heart, however frightening it maybe, nonetheless leads us to the road that goes straight to the core of our lives. The darkness, time and again, reflects our own life like a mirror wherein our soul quivers and vibrate to show the strange knot of pain and pleasure. An art riding upon the themes of aesthetics and darkness of humanity could rise to a seduction which may be impossible to turn down. The eerie power springs up from the profoundness and mystery of such an art could rise up to be an unstoppable force which may pull the worlds upside down.
link: source
Tanizaki explores the dark corners of humanity through this enthralling and captivating tale set in the pleasure quarters of Edo in an age when everywhere beauty and strength were one. It was a sedate age when the noble professions such as that of a Geisha was not obscured to the level of humiliation and embarrassment. As we know Japan has been a rigid society in which the roles both genders have to play, in public as well as private, are strictly defined, an exhibition of the same can be seen in this story too, wherein the Geisha initially acts quite shyly with modesty and grace. Besides, the people of various classes of the society used to enjoy certain privileges and thereby obligations too, which have been hard to overcome. It is as if people live a strange life wherein, they really don’t show what they are essentially and do not express their true selves on account of their feebleness to encounter the shackles of rules and regulations of the society.
The strictness and austerity of the society allowed limited space for women to express themselves, however, the men have enjoyed the benefits which come from such privileges and announced themselves on the canvas of art through great pieces. However, some of them enjoyed the seductive pleasure stems from the shrills of pain inflicted through their deft brush on the subjects who are as alive as they are but surrender themselves through the weird submissiveness. Does this pain act as glue which hold together the outlandish and eccentric relationship between the artist and the muse, or it acts a sort of vehicle of power and control? Whatever may be, but we read the story through bated breath, realizing the unusual truth of our own with a shudder as if we are staring into the abyss of our own darkness. The preference of the artist towards tattoos over painting underlies a cultural shift in the Japanese society of that time which stems from the influence of Western civilization.
The women, who live their role ordained by society to perfection as if it’s a sin too great to disturb the sacred fabric of the society, however, are reduced to just being objects of artistic endeavors of the opposite gender as if their whole existence does not matter and their souls get satiated by playing the roles assigned to them by the patriarchs of the society. However, it is through art that the conscience of women breaks shackles of social order and rises from the dungeons of obscurity and oblivion to spring up their being from the sea of nothingness for realizing their potential. The bizarre but ravishing and exquisite art enables the female protagonist of the story to not only express herself over the canvas of life but even blessed her the power to control life. Tanizaki subverts the societal dogmas about gender bias and overturn its structure upside down to raise the woman by infusing her with mysterious powers endowed through the great art to be the god of her own life.
It inevitably reminds me of How Wang-Fo Was Saved by Marguerite Yourcenar which I read recently as it also shows the power of art to transform our lives, even though the treatments of both stories may be different. The sadistic pleasure Seikichi enjoys stems from the bitterness his soul feels for being reduced to lowest standards, however, the story raises tattooing to the level of art which was perhaps otherwise not considered in the age it is set. It also underlines an important aspect of humanity that when we shred away the veneer of (inauthentic) modesty, we have to drape around due to our obligations towards the roles defined for us by the society, we show our true self as if what we are inside could only be come out through the comfort of power and control which a great art may endow us with. The story traverses on the thin lines of passion and delusion, power and submission, and art and obsession perfectly reflecting humanity and the dangers associated with it in its crude sense- an immaculate mirror of human abyss showing our own darkness.
link: source
May 15, 2023
This short story was my first (but not the last) encounter with Tanizaki. I was enthralled by the writing and the story.
To summarize the story in a few words, a tattoo artist inscribes a giant spider on the body of a beautiful young woman which changes her. I first read about the particularity of Japanese tattoos thanks to The Garden of Evening Mists by Tan Twan Eng. Master tattooists employed a very lengthy and painful method where many needles where inserted in the body of the "client". The process could take months and breaks had to be taken between the session due to wounds the needles inflicted. Usually the master tattooist choses the skin he wants to work on. There is a lot more to discuss about the subject, these are only the very basics.
Knowing a bit about this old "art", helped me appreciate this story a lot more. The Tattooer in this story enjoyed the pain he provoked and a strange relationship/obsession developed between him and the young woman. It was an intense and dark story which immediately prompted me to reach for more Tanizaki.
To summarize the story in a few words, a tattoo artist inscribes a giant spider on the body of a beautiful young woman which changes her. I first read about the particularity of Japanese tattoos thanks to The Garden of Evening Mists by Tan Twan Eng. Master tattooists employed a very lengthy and painful method where many needles where inserted in the body of the "client". The process could take months and breaks had to be taken between the session due to wounds the needles inflicted. Usually the master tattooist choses the skin he wants to work on. There is a lot more to discuss about the subject, these are only the very basics.
Knowing a bit about this old "art", helped me appreciate this story a lot more. The Tattooer in this story enjoyed the pain he provoked and a strange relationship/obsession developed between him and the young woman. It was an intense and dark story which immediately prompted me to reach for more Tanizaki.
March 30, 2024
Perfect Skin
He noticed a woman’s bare milk-white foot peeping out beneath the curtains of a departing palanquin. To his sharp eye, a human foot was as expressive as a face. This one was sheer perfection. Exquisitely chiseled toes, nails like the iridescent shells along the shore at Enoshima, a pearl-like rounded heel, skin so lustrous that it seemed bathed in the limpid waters of a mountain spring – this, indeed, was a foot to be nourished by men’s blood, a foot to trample on their bodies.
In this fascinating and dark story Tanizaki blends Japanese traditions with his admiration for western culture. Set in the lively neighbourhood Tanizaki loved to frequent for some time, it is illuminating that the protagonist, the exceptionally skilful young tattooer Seikichi, gives up his original profession as a painter schooled in the artistic tradition of Ukiyo-e and turns to the art of the tattoo instead. The young Tanizaki wasn’t fond of Hiroshige or Utamaro prints at all, preferring western visual art, which he thought more cheering. The tattoo is a story in which he meticulously brushes a picture of his ideal woman: une belle dame sans merci, a woman who is cruel and cold, a Baudelairian femme fatale who he can fear and who enables him to fall at her feet, awestruck by her beauty and willing to be crushed by her. Tanizaki twists the Madonna-whore dichotomy in into a mother-demon one, presenting both emanations of women as erotically powerful.
Even if women in the first place seem merely aesthetic objects for Tanizaki, who looks at women’s hair and skin like they are a piece of lacquerwork, he acknowledges readily their superiority. In the Tattoo, the young woman whose back will serve as the ultimate canvas the tattooer has been hoping for to create his masterpiece discovers her true nature, which is dark and dominant - turning into the kind of dream woman to whom Tanizaki – and his protagonist – all too happily are submitting themselves, in a sadomasochist reversal of roles.
Sure, it is hard to deny that Tanizaki’s recurrent gushing over those perfect little feet strengthen his reputation as a fetishist (unsurprisingly, one of the women he married apparently had beauteous feet). Also in his story Longing the beauty of a foot entices an eulogy. Nevertheless, one can wonder about the significance of this detail and how to read it in the cultural context: does it point at an idiosyncratic fetishism or rather a culturally specific view on beauty, bearing in mind that the foot has special significance in Japan, where the traditional 'nine points' of feminine beauty include an elegant foot, as well as the line of a delicate neck rising from the back of a kimono, but remain silent on the subject of breasts. A Japanese writer praising a lovely foot might be compared to a Renaissance sonneteer admiring an ivory brow or star-bright eye ? (from The Moon in the Water: Understanding Tanizaki, Kawabata, and Mishima)
The exploration of the transformative power of art– for the better or the worse – reminded me of the short story of Marguerite Yourcenar How Wang-Fo Was Saved – and also of another story thematising metamorphosis, in which the creation turns against its creator, changing the power balance (Galatea).
This short story was my fourth foray into the work of Jun'ichirō Tanizaki after reading and enjoying his epic novel The Makioka Sisters, the three novella’s in Longing and Other Stories and his essay on Japanese aesthetics In Praise of Shadows. It is a riveting thought there is plenty more of him to read.
The story can be read here.
Thanks to P-E. and Cecily, who pointed me back to Tanizaki.
He noticed a woman’s bare milk-white foot peeping out beneath the curtains of a departing palanquin. To his sharp eye, a human foot was as expressive as a face. This one was sheer perfection. Exquisitely chiseled toes, nails like the iridescent shells along the shore at Enoshima, a pearl-like rounded heel, skin so lustrous that it seemed bathed in the limpid waters of a mountain spring – this, indeed, was a foot to be nourished by men’s blood, a foot to trample on their bodies.
In this fascinating and dark story Tanizaki blends Japanese traditions with his admiration for western culture. Set in the lively neighbourhood Tanizaki loved to frequent for some time, it is illuminating that the protagonist, the exceptionally skilful young tattooer Seikichi, gives up his original profession as a painter schooled in the artistic tradition of Ukiyo-e and turns to the art of the tattoo instead. The young Tanizaki wasn’t fond of Hiroshige or Utamaro prints at all, preferring western visual art, which he thought more cheering. The tattoo is a story in which he meticulously brushes a picture of his ideal woman: une belle dame sans merci, a woman who is cruel and cold, a Baudelairian femme fatale who he can fear and who enables him to fall at her feet, awestruck by her beauty and willing to be crushed by her. Tanizaki twists the Madonna-whore dichotomy in into a mother-demon one, presenting both emanations of women as erotically powerful.
Even if women in the first place seem merely aesthetic objects for Tanizaki, who looks at women’s hair and skin like they are a piece of lacquerwork, he acknowledges readily their superiority. In the Tattoo, the young woman whose back will serve as the ultimate canvas the tattooer has been hoping for to create his masterpiece discovers her true nature, which is dark and dominant - turning into the kind of dream woman to whom Tanizaki – and his protagonist – all too happily are submitting themselves, in a sadomasochist reversal of roles.
Sure, it is hard to deny that Tanizaki’s recurrent gushing over those perfect little feet strengthen his reputation as a fetishist (unsurprisingly, one of the women he married apparently had beauteous feet). Also in his story Longing the beauty of a foot entices an eulogy. Nevertheless, one can wonder about the significance of this detail and how to read it in the cultural context: does it point at an idiosyncratic fetishism or rather a culturally specific view on beauty, bearing in mind that the foot has special significance in Japan, where the traditional 'nine points' of feminine beauty include an elegant foot, as well as the line of a delicate neck rising from the back of a kimono, but remain silent on the subject of breasts. A Japanese writer praising a lovely foot might be compared to a Renaissance sonneteer admiring an ivory brow or star-bright eye ? (from The Moon in the Water: Understanding Tanizaki, Kawabata, and Mishima)
The exploration of the transformative power of art– for the better or the worse – reminded me of the short story of Marguerite Yourcenar How Wang-Fo Was Saved – and also of another story thematising metamorphosis, in which the creation turns against its creator, changing the power balance (Galatea).
This short story was my fourth foray into the work of Jun'ichirō Tanizaki after reading and enjoying his epic novel The Makioka Sisters, the three novella’s in Longing and Other Stories and his essay on Japanese aesthetics In Praise of Shadows. It is a riveting thought there is plenty more of him to read.
The story can be read here.
Thanks to P-E. and Cecily, who pointed me back to Tanizaki.
March 28, 2024
This opens with light and beauty, when “the noble virtue of frivolity” still flourished in the pleasure districts of Edo. Tanizaki uses a delicate brush to paint the atmosphere of a beauty culture, including the allure of painfully “filigreed bodies”.
Seikichi is a young tattooist of exceptional skill who chooses whose skin to use for his art. He cannot be bought.
But he has a secret:
“His pleasure lay in the agony men felt as he drove his needles into them, torturing and vermilioning.”
Then back to beauty:
“He noticed a woman’s bare milk-white foot peeping out beneath the curtains of a departing palanquin. To his sharp eye, a human foot was as expressive as a face. This one was sheer perfection. Exquisitely chiseled toes, nails like the iridescent shells along the shore at Enoshima, a pearl-like rounded heel, skin so lustrous that it seemed bathed in the limpid waters of a mountain spring – this, indeed, was a foot to be nourished by men’s blood, a foot to trample on their bodies.”
But it’s creepy, too.
And so it see-saws between cold appreciation of aesthetics and delight in inflicting pain.
It might appeal more to readers who enjoy BDSM, but regardless of that preference, a “strangely ripe” child of 15 or 16 makes for uncomfortable reading in 2024 (it was written in 1910).
“Rays reflected from the water sketched rippling golden waves on the paper sliding screens and on the face of the girl, who was fast asleep.”
The writing, in translation, is superb, but the story is very dark. It was saved for me when it became more mythical and less realistic, and by the ending.
Overall, I interpreted it as being about facing one’s true self and darkest desires, finding kindred spirits, and the consequences of so-doing. What the girl does is more than justified, but that doesn't make the prior circumstances OK - not even a little bit.
Image: Cover of some editions
Not recommended for arachnophobes.
See also
• Tanizaki’s essay on aesthetics, In Praise of Shadows, also switches between beauty and darker themes. See my review HERE.
• Tanizaki was shortlisted for the Nobel Prize for Literature and translated Edgar Alan Poe’s works into Japanese. He was, and is, a controversial figure for his views on Japanese imperialism, race, and women.
• My initial feelings about this reminded me of Yukio Mishima's Patriotism from Gioa's anthology, which I reviewed HERE. Both use exquisite, but cold beauty, mixed with blood and horror. But whereas Mishima's was too visceral for me to rate, the magical-realist element and twist at the end of this made it more palatable to me, and I thought it was really well done.
Short story club
I read this in Black Water: The Anthology of Fantastic Literature, by Alberto Manguel, from which I’m reading one story a week with The Short Story Club, starting 4 September 2023.
You can read this story here. It’s a slightly different translation from the one by Ivan Morris in the anthology. Quotes above are mostly from the Howard Hibbet translation.
You can join the group here.
Seikichi is a young tattooist of exceptional skill who chooses whose skin to use for his art. He cannot be bought.
But he has a secret:
“His pleasure lay in the agony men felt as he drove his needles into them, torturing and vermilioning.”
Then back to beauty:
“He noticed a woman’s bare milk-white foot peeping out beneath the curtains of a departing palanquin. To his sharp eye, a human foot was as expressive as a face. This one was sheer perfection. Exquisitely chiseled toes, nails like the iridescent shells along the shore at Enoshima, a pearl-like rounded heel, skin so lustrous that it seemed bathed in the limpid waters of a mountain spring – this, indeed, was a foot to be nourished by men’s blood, a foot to trample on their bodies.”
But it’s creepy, too.
And so it see-saws between cold appreciation of aesthetics and delight in inflicting pain.
It might appeal more to readers who enjoy BDSM, but regardless of that preference, a “strangely ripe” child of 15 or 16 makes for uncomfortable reading in 2024 (it was written in 1910).
“Rays reflected from the water sketched rippling golden waves on the paper sliding screens and on the face of the girl, who was fast asleep.”
The writing, in translation, is superb, but the story is very dark. It was saved for me when it became more mythical and less realistic, and by the ending.
Overall, I interpreted it as being about facing one’s true self and darkest desires, finding kindred spirits, and the consequences of so-doing. What the girl does is more than justified, but that doesn't make the prior circumstances OK - not even a little bit.
Image: Cover of some editions
Not recommended for arachnophobes.
See also
• Tanizaki’s essay on aesthetics, In Praise of Shadows, also switches between beauty and darker themes. See my review HERE.
• Tanizaki was shortlisted for the Nobel Prize for Literature and translated Edgar Alan Poe’s works into Japanese. He was, and is, a controversial figure for his views on Japanese imperialism, race, and women.
• My initial feelings about this reminded me of Yukio Mishima's Patriotism from Gioa's anthology, which I reviewed HERE. Both use exquisite, but cold beauty, mixed with blood and horror. But whereas Mishima's was too visceral for me to rate, the magical-realist element and twist at the end of this made it more palatable to me, and I thought it was really well done.
Short story club
I read this in Black Water: The Anthology of Fantastic Literature, by Alberto Manguel, from which I’m reading one story a week with The Short Story Club, starting 4 September 2023.
You can read this story here. It’s a slightly different translation from the one by Ivan Morris in the anthology. Quotes above are mostly from the Howard Hibbet translation.
You can join the group here.
April 18, 2024
Seikichi, a famous and expert tattoo artist who enjoys the agony of his clients as he drives his needles into them, is obsessed with finding a perfectly beautiful woman, on whose spotless skin he would create a masterpiece.
After five years of searching, he finds his object of desire and tattoos a huge black-widow spider on her skin only to bestow upon her a sinister nature and an uncontrollable thirst for power and cruelty.
After five years of searching, he finds his object of desire and tattoos a huge black-widow spider on her skin only to bestow upon her a sinister nature and an uncontrollable thirst for power and cruelty.
March 24, 2024
3.5 stars
The story of two rebellious sadists in a time that praises joy and beauty. The tattooist, who applies pain gleefully in creating his art, and a young geisha-to-be who has yet to realise her own tendency towards the cruel. The big black spider he tattoos on her back symbolises their rebellion against how society sees the darkness in themselves and the girl's acceptance of her own.
Lots of good symbolism and an interesting premise/point, but clunkily written and paced. But I would say that, wouldn't I? not being a fan of the East Asian literary style.
Read for the GR short story club.
The story of two rebellious sadists in a time that praises joy and beauty. The tattooist, who applies pain gleefully in creating his art, and a young geisha-to-be who has yet to realise her own tendency towards the cruel. The big black spider he tattoos on her back symbolises their rebellion against how society sees the darkness in themselves and the girl's acceptance of her own.
Lots of good symbolism and an interesting premise/point, but clunkily written and paced. But I would say that, wouldn't I? not being a fan of the East Asian literary style.
Read for the GR short story club.
March 24, 2024
There are sadistic and erotic elements present in the title short story about a tattoo artist who tattoos the back of a beautiful woman. The image transforms and empowers her.
An image of the Joro spider on the back of a woman from a movie (with a little different plot):
https://criterionforum.org/Review/ire...
An image of the Joro spider on the back of a woman from a movie (with a little different plot):
https://criterionforum.org/Review/ire...
March 18, 2024
This is a deceptively short story that leaves a long stain. It's a captivating exploration of beauty, obsession, and the dark undercurrents of desire. The narrative follows a master tattoo artist who becomes enthralled by a young woman's flawless skin, an ideal canvas for his twisted vision. His solution: a sprawling spider tattooed across her back. This act becomes a turning point. The woman's beauty takes on a new dimension, a seductive allure tinged with danger. The tattooist, reveling in the pain he inflicts, becomes fixated on his creation. Is it the woman's beauty he craves, or the power he wields over her through the agonizing process? The lines blur, leaving the reader to question the nature of their connection. Tanizaki weaves themes of beauty and its subversion.
The story also delves into the power dynamics of art and pain. The tattooist becomes a god-like figure, wielding needles like a sculptor's chisel. The woman, willingly submitting to the torture, becomes his canvas and muse, and her endurance of the tattooing process becomes a perverse dance, blurring the lines between submission and empowerment. But who is truly in control? Does the pain become a twisted form of intimacy, or is it a desperate bid for power by the powerless?
It raises questions about the nature of beauty, desire, and the power dynamics between artist and creation. It leaves a lingering disquiet, a sense that beneath the surface of beauty, something primal and unsettling lurks.
What is the price of a beauty that transcends the ordinary? Is there a line between creation and destruction, art and obsession? The story's brilliance lies in its ability to provoke thought and unease long after the final line is read.
Read with the Short Story Club
Story is freely available online: https://archive.org/details/tanizaki-...
The story also delves into the power dynamics of art and pain. The tattooist becomes a god-like figure, wielding needles like a sculptor's chisel. The woman, willingly submitting to the torture, becomes his canvas and muse, and her endurance of the tattooing process becomes a perverse dance, blurring the lines between submission and empowerment. But who is truly in control? Does the pain become a twisted form of intimacy, or is it a desperate bid for power by the powerless?
It raises questions about the nature of beauty, desire, and the power dynamics between artist and creation. It leaves a lingering disquiet, a sense that beneath the surface of beauty, something primal and unsettling lurks.
What is the price of a beauty that transcends the ordinary? Is there a line between creation and destruction, art and obsession? The story's brilliance lies in its ability to provoke thought and unease long after the final line is read.
Read with the Short Story Club
Story is freely available online: https://archive.org/details/tanizaki-...
August 8, 2023
Fleurs d'encre
Accompagnement sonore : Concerto pour Violon n°2 de Felix Mendelssohn
Un recueil de trois nouvelles :
Le tatouage : ****
L'histoire du maître tatoueur Seikichi, en quête de la femme qui saura porter son futur chef-d'œuvre. Une nouvelle menée de main de maître par Jun'ichirō Tanizaki, qui soumet la jeune femme et le tatoueur à une étonnante métamorphose en si peu de pages (23 pages format poche et grande police dans l'édition que j'annote).
Voir aussi :
Nana
Hell Screen in Rashomon and Other Stories
Les Diaboliques
Les garçons : ***
Le récit des jeux équivoques auxquels s'adonnent le narrateur, ses camarades de classe Senkichi, Shin'ichi et la sœur de ce dernier, Mitsuko. Une nouvelle qui me rappelle l'effroyable 地獄変 de Ryūnosuke Akutagawa traduite par 'Figures infernales' dans l'édition française, pour les trésors de perversité que renferment des personnages en apparence anodins.
Voir aussi :
The Imp of the Perverse
Les Faux-monnayeurs
Les Diaboliques, en particulier 'Le Rideau cramoisi'.
Le secret : *****
Ma nouvelle préférée du recueil. Il s'agit d'un homme lassé par la vie mondaine, que tout déçoit, au bord de l'épuisement nerveux. Cet homme rompt brusquement les relations avec ses proches et les gens qu'il côtoie pour se mettre à la recherche d'une retraite, au sein même de sa ville de Tokyo. Il en vient à cultiver un goût profond pour le mystère et les plaisirs vifs qu'il lui procure, en se déguisant pour tromper son monde. Seulement... il s'aperçoit bientôt... qu'il n'est pas le seul à priser ces jouissances troubles dans la capitale.
Voir aussi :
Some Prefer Nettles
À rebours
L'école de la chair
War and Peace
Les Diaboliques ('Le Dessous de cartes d'un partie de Whist' et 'Le bonheur dans le crime')
Contes cruels
L'immortalité
Mon rêve familier
Accompagnement sonore : Concerto pour Violon n°2 de Felix Mendelssohn
Un recueil de trois nouvelles :
Le tatouage : ****
L'histoire du maître tatoueur Seikichi, en quête de la femme qui saura porter son futur chef-d'œuvre. Une nouvelle menée de main de maître par Jun'ichirō Tanizaki, qui soumet la jeune femme et le tatoueur à une étonnante métamorphose en si peu de pages (23 pages format poche et grande police dans l'édition que j'annote).
Voir aussi :
Nana
Hell Screen in Rashomon and Other Stories
Les Diaboliques
Les garçons : ***
Le récit des jeux équivoques auxquels s'adonnent le narrateur, ses camarades de classe Senkichi, Shin'ichi et la sœur de ce dernier, Mitsuko. Une nouvelle qui me rappelle l'effroyable 地獄変 de Ryūnosuke Akutagawa traduite par 'Figures infernales' dans l'édition française, pour les trésors de perversité que renferment des personnages en apparence anodins.
Voir aussi :
The Imp of the Perverse
Les Faux-monnayeurs
Les Diaboliques, en particulier 'Le Rideau cramoisi'.
Le secret : *****
Ma nouvelle préférée du recueil. Il s'agit d'un homme lassé par la vie mondaine, que tout déçoit, au bord de l'épuisement nerveux. Cet homme rompt brusquement les relations avec ses proches et les gens qu'il côtoie pour se mettre à la recherche d'une retraite, au sein même de sa ville de Tokyo. Il en vient à cultiver un goût profond pour le mystère et les plaisirs vifs qu'il lui procure, en se déguisant pour tromper son monde. Seulement... il s'aperçoit bientôt... qu'il n'est pas le seul à priser ces jouissances troubles dans la capitale.
Voir aussi :
Some Prefer Nettles
À rebours
L'école de la chair
War and Peace
Les Diaboliques ('Le Dessous de cartes d'un partie de Whist' et 'Le bonheur dans le crime')
Contes cruels
L'immortalité
Mon rêve familier
March 24, 2024
“Her gaze steadily brightened, as the moon brightens in the evening, until it shone dazzlingly into his face.”
A disturbing story on so many levels (not the least of which is that cover--shudder). It’s a tale of sadism, or masochism, or both. Certainly not my usual fare but the writing was beautiful and sensitive, and the ending powerful and thought-provoking. My first from the author of The Makioka Sisters, which I’ve been meaning to read for ages and will now move up the list.
A disturbing story on so many levels (not the least of which is that cover--shudder). It’s a tale of sadism, or masochism, or both. Certainly not my usual fare but the writing was beautiful and sensitive, and the ending powerful and thought-provoking. My first from the author of The Makioka Sisters, which I’ve been meaning to read for ages and will now move up the list.
March 18, 2024
The picture on the cover of this book does not do the story justice.
February 26, 2017
by creating her, he became enslaved, so why did he? Hubris?
May 10, 2022
#EseTipoConUnLibro
¡Quee buena historia!
Escalofriante historia
¡Quee buena historia!
Escalofriante historia
August 1, 2025
"everywhere beauty and strength were one"
An early story from a writer that offers insight into the progression of a Japanese master's craft.
"Deep in his heart the young tattooer concealed a secret pleasure, and a secret desire."
Sadomasochism is a twisty blade that cuts in all directions, and the young tattooer is obsessed and manipulative. The story is overwrought, the fanciful plot tenuously strung from a thin thread of eroticism.
The notion of torture attracts the tattooist, and he also sets up the means to be tortured by his creation. Such is the nature of a secret desire.
An early story from a writer that offers insight into the progression of a Japanese master's craft.
"Deep in his heart the young tattooer concealed a secret pleasure, and a secret desire."
Sadomasochism is a twisty blade that cuts in all directions, and the young tattooer is obsessed and manipulative. The story is overwrought, the fanciful plot tenuously strung from a thin thread of eroticism.
The notion of torture attracts the tattooist, and he also sets up the means to be tortured by his creation. Such is the nature of a secret desire.
December 9, 2024
Intriguing!
But somehow, this story feels familiar—the mad obsession of the tattoo artist who, in the end, fulfills his goal.
But somehow, this story feels familiar—the mad obsession of the tattoo artist who, in the end, fulfills his goal.
March 27, 2024
I dare say that hurts
It took me five reads to come up with any thoughts on this one. It was a bit ‘on the nose’ for my usual tastes, but I still enjoyed reading it nonetheless.
I did enjoy how pointed the story was. We get to know the main character, their desires and their flaws almost right off the bat.
This sentence really stood out to me when we’re first introduced to Seikichi: … in spite of his decline to the status of a tattooer..
To me, it very much feels like he hates where he is and has had something of a fall from grace from being an ukiyoye. Sidenote: The real word is ukiyo-e and this is the definition I found for it: By combining uki for sadness and yo for life, the word ukiyo-e originally reflected the Buddhist concept of life as a transitory illusion, involving a cycle of birth, suffering, death, and rebirth. I definitely felt some sadness from Seikichi through this – a sort of giving up of his soul.
This, to me, presents itself in his desire to make the men he tattoos squirm with as much pain as possible, bringing him what appears to be his only joy. Is he jealous? Or has he just given up? Or is he that enamoured with beauty that he’s lost his soul to it already?
There are obvious commentaries on the lengths some people are willing to go for beauty’s sake.
’this girl’
…he was about to embellish the pure skin of this girl.
But Seikichi never paused in his work, nor was the girl's sleep broken.
…this weird, malevolent creature had stretched its eight legs to embrace the whole of the girl's back.
The woman isn’t named in the whole tale. It gives her something of a larger status, while at the same time degrading her. Did it really matter who he took?
What really stood out to me as I read this more, was how much the girl’s journey feels like a spiral into drugs. It’s like she’s been trapped with some bad friends and led down a path that’s bad for her, and she knows she has some addictive tendencies.
Seikichi was amazed at the change that had come over the timid, yielding girl of yesterday.
He takes her in and forces her to do his bidding, turning her body over to his art.
I did enjoy reading this tale, but the ending is still puzzling me. It happens rather abruptly and I didn’t quite ‘get the point’. Still, it was well worth diving into.
I can bear anything for the sake of beauty
It took me five reads to come up with any thoughts on this one. It was a bit ‘on the nose’ for my usual tastes, but I still enjoyed reading it nonetheless.
I did enjoy how pointed the story was. We get to know the main character, their desires and their flaws almost right off the bat.
This sentence really stood out to me when we’re first introduced to Seikichi: … in spite of his decline to the status of a tattooer..
To me, it very much feels like he hates where he is and has had something of a fall from grace from being an ukiyoye. Sidenote: The real word is ukiyo-e and this is the definition I found for it: By combining uki for sadness and yo for life, the word ukiyo-e originally reflected the Buddhist concept of life as a transitory illusion, involving a cycle of birth, suffering, death, and rebirth. I definitely felt some sadness from Seikichi through this – a sort of giving up of his soul.
This, to me, presents itself in his desire to make the men he tattoos squirm with as much pain as possible, bringing him what appears to be his only joy. Is he jealous? Or has he just given up? Or is he that enamoured with beauty that he’s lost his soul to it already?
There are obvious commentaries on the lengths some people are willing to go for beauty’s sake.
’this girl’
…he was about to embellish the pure skin of this girl.
But Seikichi never paused in his work, nor was the girl's sleep broken.
…this weird, malevolent creature had stretched its eight legs to embrace the whole of the girl's back.
The woman isn’t named in the whole tale. It gives her something of a larger status, while at the same time degrading her. Did it really matter who he took?
What really stood out to me as I read this more, was how much the girl’s journey feels like a spiral into drugs. It’s like she’s been trapped with some bad friends and led down a path that’s bad for her, and she knows she has some addictive tendencies.
Seikichi was amazed at the change that had come over the timid, yielding girl of yesterday.
He takes her in and forces her to do his bidding, turning her body over to his art.
I did enjoy reading this tale, but the ending is still puzzling me. It happens rather abruptly and I didn’t quite ‘get the point’. Still, it was well worth diving into.
I can bear anything for the sake of beauty
December 25, 2024
When the tattooer sees a woman's beautiful foot, he thinks, "this, indeed, was a foot to be nourished by men’s blood, a foot to trample on their bodies."
It reminded me of Njal's Saga, where a man says of his young niece (who will grow up to be a villain), “The girl is quite beautiful, and many will pay for that".
Beauty is something we suffer to possess, whether in ourselves or in others. Almost as if there is something violent in it.
It reminded me of Njal's Saga, where a man says of his young niece (who will grow up to be a villain), “The girl is quite beautiful, and many will pay for that".
Beauty is something we suffer to possess, whether in ourselves or in others. Almost as if there is something violent in it.
July 7, 2017
Interesting imagery, beautiful use of language and vivid descriptions which make you feel like you're actually there. However very dark and disturbing themes and slightly nauseating.
July 6, 2022
La première nouvelle est quasiment un coup de cœur !
Je ne m'attendais à rien de particulier de cette lecture, mais ça a été une agréable surprise !
Le style de l'auteur était très addictif !
Une superbe découverte !
Je ne m'attendais à rien de particulier de cette lecture, mais ça a été une agréable surprise !
Le style de l'auteur était très addictif !
Une superbe découverte !
January 30, 2024
Holy shit! Ich habe diese Kurzgeschichte verschlungen, lange war ich nicht mehr so gefesselt! Seikichi, der Protagonist und ein unglaublich talentierter Tätowierer, ist schnell charakterisiert (oder etwa doch nicht?): „His pleasure lay in the agony men felt as he drove his needles into them(…).“ Also ein klassischer Sadist? Eher nicht, denn bei seinem „Meisterwerk“, der Tätowierung einer wunderschönen Geisha findet er sich schnell in den „Fängen“ einer Femme Fatale wider, aus der er wohl nie mehr entkommen wird bzw. will..
(P.S. Ich love love love den letzten Absatz. Will ihn aber nicht spoilern lol)
(P.S. Ich love love love den letzten Absatz. Will ihn aber nicht spoilern lol)
February 16, 2021
Πρώτη λογοτεχνική δουλειά του Ιάπωνα συγγραφέα και από τις πρώτες γραμμές βλέπουμε έντονα τη γοητεία που μας ασκεί η Άπω Ανατολή. Χρώματα, εικόνες, όνειρα και αναμνήσεις γίνονται το όπλο του tattoo artist (εγώ τατουατζή τον έλεγα τόσα χρόνια αλλά τελευταία δεν είναι chic) του τίτλου. Ένα έργο που είναι ικανό να κατακτήσει τον ίδιο του το δημιουργό, να τον στοιχειώσει, να τον σαγηνεύσει.
Νομίζω πρόκειται για εξαιρετικό δείγμα γραφής και σίγουρα θα επανέλθω.
3/5
Νομίζω πρόκειται για εξαιρετικό δείγμα γραφής και σίγουρα θα επανέλθω.
3/5
August 19, 2023
Джуничиро Танидзаки е смятан за един от най-изтъкнатите писатели в модерната японска литература. Е, вече знам защо. След неуспешния опит да прочета „Дневникът на един луд старец”, реших да опитам със сборника разкази „Татуировката”. Получи се.
Книгата съдържа 5 истории, които са едни от най-добрите неща, писани от Танидзаки.
Впечатлението ми е различно от романтичното и възвишено усещане, което оставя рецензията, отпечатана върху кориците на книгата. Образът на жената съвсем не е красив, нито пък е център на всички разкази. Сърцевината им се върти около тъмното и странното. Тук набират сила жестокостта, отчуждеността, прикритостта, маниакалността и извратеността. А Танидзаки е забележителен познавач на човешката душа и психика.
Именно тази особеност превръща книгата в истинско пиршество за четене. Всеки един разказ е увличащ, а краят е винаги изненадващ.
„Портрет на Шункин” разказва за богатата наследница Шункин и нейния слуга Саске. Тя е сляпа музикантка, а той е нейните очи. Отношенията между тях са многопластови, крайни и наситени и са проследени в рамките на няколко десетилетия, които разкриват преобразяването на двама души от различни социални класи.
„Нещастието, погубило красотата на Шункин, се превърнало за нея в благо: тя успяла да вкуси от елексира на любовта и изкуството.”
„Татуировката” е вълшебен разказ, който буквално рисува с думи историята на обсебения татуировчик и неговата мечта, която му струва живота.
„Яркото слънце се оглеждало във водите на реката и ателието – голямо осем татами – било сякаш обхванато от пламъци. Отразени от водата, слънчевите лъчи изписвали златни шарки по лицето на дълбоко заспалата девойка и по хартиените шоджи. Сейкичи затворил плътно вратата и взел своите принадлежности, но в този миг се вцепенил като омагьосан. Татуировчикът за пръв път осъзнал истинската прелест на жената. Чувствал, че може да седи така десетки, стотици години и да съзерцава в захлас неподвижното лице пред себе си.”
„Аз” е историята за честния крадец. Заиграването с читателското въображение и великолепния завършек ме разсмяха от изненада.
„От всички престъпления хората са най-склонни към убийство – изказа мнението си Хигучи, син на известен професор. – Никога обаче не бих си представил, че мога да открадна. Това е наистина долно. Мога да бъда приятел с какъвто и да е човек, но не и с крадец. Крадецът не е нормално човешко същество.”
„Комедиантът” е трагикомичен разказ за веселяка Сампей, който е вземан на подбив от всички – и от мъжете, и от жените; и от близки, и от непознати. Неговата съдба е да разсмива хората, които забравят да го обичат, докато му се смеят.
„Сампей беше душата на всички компании, без него пиршествата бяха обречени на провал. Пееше хубаво, бе сладкодумен и нито за миг не се замайваше от популярността си. Нещо повече – без да обръща внимание на солидното си положение като борсов посредник и на мъжката си репутация, той съвсем по детски се радваше на похвалите и закачките на приятелите си и гейшите. Когато пийнеше, лицето му лъсваше под силната светлина на лампата, той започваше да подвиква весело и да сипе шеги, а очите му искряха от радост. Веселбите и развлеченията бяха в кръвта му, гуляйджийството – негово призвание. За Сампей всички хора бяха еднакви.”
„Ключът” е най-покъртителният и брутален разказ. Всъщност той представлява дневниците на двама съпрузи, които непрекъснато играят на котка и мишка. Неизречените желания, срамът от голотата, консервативното отношение към половия акт, липсата на емоционална интимност помежду им се изражда в в маниакална жажда за секс.
Липсата на любов се изражда в постоянна мнителност, изневяра и накрая в унищожение.
„И само след миг от ревността и гнева ми не остана и помен. Беше ми все едно дали тя спи, или е будна, дали се преструва, или не; безразлично ми бе дори дали това съм аз, или Кимура… Имах чувството, че съм проникнал в четвъртото измерение на пространството, че съм на най-високия връх в царството на желанията и блаженството. Миналото бе илюзия, а това тук и сега – действителност. Бяхме сами, аз и жена ми… и се любехме…
Това може би щеше да ми коства живота, но в този миг се слях с вечността…”
Книгата съдържа 5 истории, които са едни от най-добрите неща, писани от Танидзаки.
Впечатлението ми е различно от романтичното и възвишено усещане, което оставя рецензията, отпечатана върху кориците на книгата. Образът на жената съвсем не е красив, нито пък е център на всички разкази. Сърцевината им се върти около тъмното и странното. Тук набират сила жестокостта, отчуждеността, прикритостта, маниакалността и извратеността. А Танидзаки е забележителен познавач на човешката душа и психика.
Именно тази особеност превръща книгата в истинско пиршество за четене. Всеки един разказ е увличащ, а краят е винаги изненадващ.
„Портрет на Шункин” разказва за богатата наследница Шункин и нейния слуга Саске. Тя е сляпа музикантка, а той е нейните очи. Отношенията между тях са многопластови, крайни и наситени и са проследени в рамките на няколко десетилетия, които разкриват преобразяването на двама души от различни социални класи.
„Нещастието, погубило красотата на Шункин, се превърнало за нея в благо: тя успяла да вкуси от елексира на любовта и изкуството.”
„Татуировката” е вълшебен разказ, който буквално рисува с думи историята на обсебения татуировчик и неговата мечта, която му струва живота.
„Яркото слънце се оглеждало във водите на реката и ателието – голямо осем татами – било сякаш обхванато от пламъци. Отразени от водата, слънчевите лъчи изписвали златни шарки по лицето на дълбоко заспалата девойка и по хартиените шоджи. Сейкичи затворил плътно вратата и взел своите принадлежности, но в този миг се вцепенил като омагьосан. Татуировчикът за пръв път осъзнал истинската прелест на жената. Чувствал, че може да седи така десетки, стотици години и да съзерцава в захлас неподвижното лице пред себе си.”
„Аз” е историята за честния крадец. Заиграването с читателското въображение и великолепния завършек ме разсмяха от изненада.
„От всички престъпления хората са най-склонни към убийство – изказа мнението си Хигучи, син на известен професор. – Никога обаче не бих си представил, че мога да открадна. Това е наистина долно. Мога да бъда приятел с какъвто и да е човек, но не и с крадец. Крадецът не е нормално човешко същество.”
„Комедиантът” е трагикомичен разказ за веселяка Сампей, който е вземан на подбив от всички – и от мъжете, и от жените; и от близки, и от непознати. Неговата съдба е да разсмива хората, които забравят да го обичат, докато му се смеят.
„Сампей беше душата на всички компании, без него пиршествата бяха обречени на провал. Пееше хубаво, бе сладкодумен и нито за миг не се замайваше от популярността си. Нещо повече – без да обръща внимание на солидното си положение като борсов посредник и на мъжката си репутация, той съвсем по детски се радваше на похвалите и закачките на приятелите си и гейшите. Когато пийнеше, лицето му лъсваше под силната светлина на лампата, той започваше да подвиква весело и да сипе шеги, а очите му искряха от радост. Веселбите и развлеченията бяха в кръвта му, гуляйджийството – негово призвание. За Сампей всички хора бяха еднакви.”
„Ключът” е най-покъртителният и брутален разказ. Всъщност той представлява дневниците на двама съпрузи, които непрекъснато играят на котка и мишка. Неизречените желания, срамът от голотата, консервативното отношение към половия акт, липсата на емоционална интимност помежду им се изражда в в маниакална жажда за секс.
Липсата на любов се изражда в постоянна мнителност, изневяра и накрая в унищожение.
„И само след миг от ревността и гнева ми не остана и помен. Беше ми все едно дали тя спи, или е будна, дали се преструва, или не; безразлично ми бе дори дали това съм аз, или Кимура… Имах чувството, че съм проникнал в четвъртото измерение на пространството, че съм на най-високия връх в царството на желанията и блаженството. Миналото бе илюзия, а това тук и сега – действителност. Бяхме сами, аз и жена ми… и се любехме…
Това може би щеше да ми коства живота, но в този миг се слях с вечността…”
December 7, 2017
I like how different, unique and weird this text is. It has so much going on and I like how it makes you wonder exactly why Seikichi did what he did. Was he a sadist? Was he a pedophile? Or was he just plain insane and delusional? These are the questions that run through your mind when you read this story. I love how this story makes you question it more and more as you read it, and one of the biggest questions is “why?”. Like why did he decide to choose a black widow and especially why did she not freak out when she woke up. In my opinion I believe that this story was just one big metaphor for something else. I believe that one main symbolism used in this story was “the black widow”. Because of this “black widow” and everything else that happened, this story can mean a lot of different things depending on how the reader sees it. Overall I think this story was unique and very interesting to read. (175)
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October 1, 2021the only good thing about this japanese lit class is that it's helping my goodreads challenge considerably
December 10, 2024
i would take a free tattoo (especially a spider)anyday
August 21, 2023
Finally got around to reading this. For clarity’s sake, I’m going to refer to the story by its Japanese title, Shisei (“The Tattooer”), although I’ve also seen it being referred to it as Irezumi (“Tattoo”), possibly after the title of the 1966 film adaptation by Yasuzo Masumura, who also adapted Naomi and Quicksand for the screen. There are two English versions of Shisei - The Tattooer, translated by Howard Hibbett, and The Victim/Tattoo, translated by Ivan Morris, which first appeared in the Paris Review in 1957, and then in the Tuttle Publishing anthology, Modern Japanese Stories (where I read it.)
Of the two, I would strongly recommend Morris’s version: it was immediately apparent to me that he has done far more to preserve the sensuousness of the original prose, a great deal of which is produced by near-hyperbolic description. In fact, I respectfully disagree with many of Hibbett’s omissions – anybody dealing with Japanese translated anything (books, anime, manga) will tell you just how irritating it is when the translator unilaterally decides to junk the honorific parts of speech. Given that the crux of the story rests on the ultimate inversion of the dynamic between the tattooer and the maiko, it is not clear to me why Hibbett decided to remove any reference to her calling him ‘Master,’ or made zero attempt to capture the difference in how they address one another. It doesn’t hurt that Morris’s version in Modern Japanese Stories was supported by a beautiful wood-cut illustration.
I also don’t know why the description says this is Tanizaki’s first published work – that was a one-act stage play published one year prior to Shisei, in Shinshicho (“New Thought”), a magazine Tanizaki co-founded. Shisei did, however, mark the real beginning of Tanizaki’s literary career. It was extremely well-received after being printed in Shinshicho – in particular, I was surprised to find out that Nagai Kafū richly praised it. Kafu was by then a well-established writer in the late Meiji literary scene, and he termed Shisei Tanizaki’s best story. It is worth noting that Tanizaki himself had been both influenced and inspired by Kafu’s Amerika Monogatari ("American Stories", 1908). I break here to further note that another of my favourite writers, Fumiko Enchi, listed Tanizaki and Kafu (in that order) as her favourite modern writers, speaking of a “refined eroticism” in their works that Enchi tried to incorporate in her own writing (I read this in a paper by Yoko Matsuoka McClain, who is – and get this – Soseki’s granddaughter.) Kafu’s high praise gave Tanizaki’s career an impetus, and his subsequent works were printed by leading literary journals.
Shisei is so fascinating for such a short work. If you’re familiar with Tanizaki’s oeuvre, you will know his persistent obsession with the sadomasochism and the lethal-woman motif, but I was surprised (to say the least) to see just how early on it occurred in his writing – that too with a sophisticated self-assuredness that he retained to the end of his life. I’m starting to feel that the sexual themes in his works had little to do with his wives/muses – they were merely channels for impulses that were present, as Shisei shows, even when Tanizaki was 24.
Shisei centers on the eponymous protagonist, a gifted but sadistic tattooer who lives in search of an ideal woman to use as a canvas for his art. You’d be forgiven for making the obvious Pygmalion connection – I’m not sure if Tanizaki drew directly from the myth, but he was definitely inspired by Gothic Romantic writers who drew on (and often subverted) the destructive protagonist-as-creator trope, including Poe and Shelley. In any case, Tanizaki certainly raises the beauty of the woman to mythic proportions, starting with a glimpse of her foot, a foot of “absolute perfection… [meant to] trample upon his soul.”
Much like the luckless Joji, the tattooer initially has the upper hand. He tells the woman, “You shall stay for a while… I alone have the power to make of you a beautiful woman,” (by the way, Hibbett translates the same dialogue as "No, you must stay — I will make you a real beauty,” – do you see what I mean?). I do have one criticism – unlike Tanizaki’s later heroines, the latent sadistic impulses of the maiko are awakened a little conveniently. The protagonist presses upon her two powerfully evocative scrolls, depicting lushly detailed scenes of cruelty (think Hell Screen), and this brief episode is enough to embolden her to slip under a coma (another motif) and awaken a transformed woman. Again, this is possibly because it is a short-story, but the tattooer’s reaction to the woman’s new self is also not detailed – he feels only uncomplicated triumph, and not the cocktail of masochism and delight-in-degradation his later characters experience.
In my opinion, Shisei by itself doesn’t capture the genius of Tanizaki. It only represents the youthful (and excellent) starting point for a body of work that consummately explores an odd contradiction in male sexuality – the desire to be dominated by a woman, even as this domination inevitably emasculates the male completely. This is amply demonstrated by the parallels between Shisei and The Key, two stories written forty-six years apart, but still identical insofar the preoccupation of the male with engineering the woman’s sexual conduct, only to be completely subjugated by her, is concerned. 3/5
Of the two, I would strongly recommend Morris’s version: it was immediately apparent to me that he has done far more to preserve the sensuousness of the original prose, a great deal of which is produced by near-hyperbolic description. In fact, I respectfully disagree with many of Hibbett’s omissions – anybody dealing with Japanese translated anything (books, anime, manga) will tell you just how irritating it is when the translator unilaterally decides to junk the honorific parts of speech. Given that the crux of the story rests on the ultimate inversion of the dynamic between the tattooer and the maiko, it is not clear to me why Hibbett decided to remove any reference to her calling him ‘Master,’ or made zero attempt to capture the difference in how they address one another. It doesn’t hurt that Morris’s version in Modern Japanese Stories was supported by a beautiful wood-cut illustration.
I also don’t know why the description says this is Tanizaki’s first published work – that was a one-act stage play published one year prior to Shisei, in Shinshicho (“New Thought”), a magazine Tanizaki co-founded. Shisei did, however, mark the real beginning of Tanizaki’s literary career. It was extremely well-received after being printed in Shinshicho – in particular, I was surprised to find out that Nagai Kafū richly praised it. Kafu was by then a well-established writer in the late Meiji literary scene, and he termed Shisei Tanizaki’s best story. It is worth noting that Tanizaki himself had been both influenced and inspired by Kafu’s Amerika Monogatari ("American Stories", 1908). I break here to further note that another of my favourite writers, Fumiko Enchi, listed Tanizaki and Kafu (in that order) as her favourite modern writers, speaking of a “refined eroticism” in their works that Enchi tried to incorporate in her own writing (I read this in a paper by Yoko Matsuoka McClain, who is – and get this – Soseki’s granddaughter.) Kafu’s high praise gave Tanizaki’s career an impetus, and his subsequent works were printed by leading literary journals.
Shisei is so fascinating for such a short work. If you’re familiar with Tanizaki’s oeuvre, you will know his persistent obsession with the sadomasochism and the lethal-woman motif, but I was surprised (to say the least) to see just how early on it occurred in his writing – that too with a sophisticated self-assuredness that he retained to the end of his life. I’m starting to feel that the sexual themes in his works had little to do with his wives/muses – they were merely channels for impulses that were present, as Shisei shows, even when Tanizaki was 24.
Shisei centers on the eponymous protagonist, a gifted but sadistic tattooer who lives in search of an ideal woman to use as a canvas for his art. You’d be forgiven for making the obvious Pygmalion connection – I’m not sure if Tanizaki drew directly from the myth, but he was definitely inspired by Gothic Romantic writers who drew on (and often subverted) the destructive protagonist-as-creator trope, including Poe and Shelley. In any case, Tanizaki certainly raises the beauty of the woman to mythic proportions, starting with a glimpse of her foot, a foot of “absolute perfection… [meant to] trample upon his soul.”
Much like the luckless Joji, the tattooer initially has the upper hand. He tells the woman, “You shall stay for a while… I alone have the power to make of you a beautiful woman,” (by the way, Hibbett translates the same dialogue as "No, you must stay — I will make you a real beauty,” – do you see what I mean?). I do have one criticism – unlike Tanizaki’s later heroines, the latent sadistic impulses of the maiko are awakened a little conveniently. The protagonist presses upon her two powerfully evocative scrolls, depicting lushly detailed scenes of cruelty (think Hell Screen), and this brief episode is enough to embolden her to slip under a coma (another motif) and awaken a transformed woman. Again, this is possibly because it is a short-story, but the tattooer’s reaction to the woman’s new self is also not detailed – he feels only uncomplicated triumph, and not the cocktail of masochism and delight-in-degradation his later characters experience.
In my opinion, Shisei by itself doesn’t capture the genius of Tanizaki. It only represents the youthful (and excellent) starting point for a body of work that consummately explores an odd contradiction in male sexuality – the desire to be dominated by a woman, even as this domination inevitably emasculates the male completely. This is amply demonstrated by the parallels between Shisei and The Key, two stories written forty-six years apart, but still identical insofar the preoccupation of the male with engineering the woman’s sexual conduct, only to be completely subjugated by her, is concerned. 3/5
November 27, 2023
If I had to Psychoanalyze Seikichi, like if he were a serial killer and I had to profile him, I'd say he was a highly perceptive individual who probably witnessed great violence upon his mother at the hand of his father and uses his art to exact revenge upon males. He takes great pleasure in punishing them, yet he finds this one young woman (after taking great pains to find the perfect one) who probably reminds him of his mother, and gives her a tattoo that is his greatest piece -- from which she can draw strength and BE that woman in those paintings, the way he probably wishes he could have given his mother strength.
December 1, 2017
Насладата да четеш Танидзаки - след великолепната "Възхвала на сянката" - една естетика толкова различна от тази на Запада.
April 7, 2024
I read this story as one of those offered us in the Goodreads Short Story Club.
It was one of my least favourite stories – it is a tale of sadomasochism.
This is a Japanese story which apparently takes place in Tokyo.
In the time referred to in this story, “beauty and strength were one”. People did everything they could to beautify themselves, even having pigments injected int their skins.
Everyone wanted to be tattooed–” gamblers, firemen, .... and even samurai”.
There was an extremely skilful young tattooer called Seikichi. He had been praised “on all sides” as a master.
He had previously been a Ukiyoye painter, whatever that is. He would not offer his services to any whose skin or physique did not interest him.
He himself determined the design to be used and the cost.
Clients had to endure for one or two months “the excruciating pain of his needles”.
He was a sadist – “his pleasure lay in the agony men felt as he drove his needles into them”.
He particularly enjoyed the most painful techniques, torturing and vermilioning.
When a man had been pricked 500-600 times in the course of a day’s treatment and had soaked in a hot bath to bring out the colours, he would collapse at Seikichi’s feet half-dead.
Seikichi coolly remarked with an air of satisfaction “I dare say that hurts.”
For a long time S had desired to create a masterpiece on the skin of a beautiful woman, She had to have a lovely face and a fine body but also various qualifications of character.
One evening he noticed a woman’s bare milk-white foot visible beneath the curtains of a palanquin (a covered litter - a class of wheelless vehicles).This foot was sheer perfection.
Surely this was the foot of the woman who had so long eluded him.
He tried to follow the palanquin but lost track of it.
One day a young girl came to his house on an errand for a geisha he knew.
The girl seemed only fifteen or sixteen , but her face had a “strangely ripe beauty”.
The girl turns out to be the same one whose foot he had admired.
He takes her up to his studio, and shows her a painting of a Chinese princess. She was leaning on a balustrade gazing down at a man about to be tortured in the garden below. He was chained hand and foot to a copper pillar on which a fire would be lighted.
Her face took on a curious resemblance to the princess. “In the picture she discovered her secret self.”
S tells her “The woman is yourself. Her blood flows in your veins.”
He shows her another painting entitled “The victims”. This portrays a young woman “gloating” over a heap of men’s corpses lying at her feet. “Her eyes radiated pride and joy. Was it a battlefield or a garden in Spring?”
S tells her the painting shows her future. All these men would ruin their lives for her.
She begs S to put the painting away, but admits that she is like that woman,
She asks to leave but is not allowed. S says he will make her a real beauty.
He has a vial of anaesthetic and anaesthetizes her.
He sits contemplating her beauty, then begins pricking out a design on her back.
He tells a servant who comes to inquire about the girl that she left long ago.
S is tattoing a huge black widow spider on the girl’s back.
It is a “weird, malevolent creature”.
Finally, he is finished. This work of art has been the supreme effort of his life.
He tells the girl that there is no woman in Japan to compare with her. “All men will be your victims.”
She has to bathe to bring out the colours. It will hurt.
“I can bear anything for the sake of beauty”, she says.
After the bath the girl moans as if in a nightmare.
After an hour, she comes in to S, He tells her “You are my first victim.”
She takes off her kimono to show him her back, which catches a ray of sunlight, wreathing the spider in flames.
S admits to being a sadist. The girl’s emotions are apparently divided.
She calls the painting of the Chinese princess “this horrible thing”. But she discovers her secret self in the painting, and her face resembles that of the princess.
And the girl feels she has found something “long hidden in the darkness of her own heart”.
S anaesthetizes the girl without permission. When she is fast asleep, he begins his torture.
So it is a sort of rape.
When it is all over, the girl admits she will do anything for beauty. So, unconsciously, she did wish for this “torture” and adornment.
The black widow spider is known to eat its mate, so this emphasizes S’s statement that all men will be her victims.
And then there is the painting called “The victims” with a young woman gloating at the pile of men’s corpses, and S’s statement that this will be her future.
Though S is a sadist and derives pleasure from others’ pain, he does show compassion by anasthetizing the girl during the tattooing. And he speaks “with compassion” when he tells her that the bath will hurt her.
As regards the spider, apparently there are no black widow spiders in Japan, so this is a wrong translation, and the reference to the black widow spider eating its mate does not apply.
It was one of my least favourite stories – it is a tale of sadomasochism.
This is a Japanese story which apparently takes place in Tokyo.
In the time referred to in this story, “beauty and strength were one”. People did everything they could to beautify themselves, even having pigments injected int their skins.
Everyone wanted to be tattooed–” gamblers, firemen, .... and even samurai”.
There was an extremely skilful young tattooer called Seikichi. He had been praised “on all sides” as a master.
He had previously been a Ukiyoye painter, whatever that is. He would not offer his services to any whose skin or physique did not interest him.
He himself determined the design to be used and the cost.
Clients had to endure for one or two months “the excruciating pain of his needles”.
He was a sadist – “his pleasure lay in the agony men felt as he drove his needles into them”.
He particularly enjoyed the most painful techniques, torturing and vermilioning.
When a man had been pricked 500-600 times in the course of a day’s treatment and had soaked in a hot bath to bring out the colours, he would collapse at Seikichi’s feet half-dead.
Seikichi coolly remarked with an air of satisfaction “I dare say that hurts.”
For a long time S had desired to create a masterpiece on the skin of a beautiful woman, She had to have a lovely face and a fine body but also various qualifications of character.
One evening he noticed a woman’s bare milk-white foot visible beneath the curtains of a palanquin (a covered litter - a class of wheelless vehicles).This foot was sheer perfection.
Surely this was the foot of the woman who had so long eluded him.
He tried to follow the palanquin but lost track of it.
One day a young girl came to his house on an errand for a geisha he knew.
The girl seemed only fifteen or sixteen , but her face had a “strangely ripe beauty”.
The girl turns out to be the same one whose foot he had admired.
He takes her up to his studio, and shows her a painting of a Chinese princess. She was leaning on a balustrade gazing down at a man about to be tortured in the garden below. He was chained hand and foot to a copper pillar on which a fire would be lighted.
Her face took on a curious resemblance to the princess. “In the picture she discovered her secret self.”
S tells her “The woman is yourself. Her blood flows in your veins.”
He shows her another painting entitled “The victims”. This portrays a young woman “gloating” over a heap of men’s corpses lying at her feet. “Her eyes radiated pride and joy. Was it a battlefield or a garden in Spring?”
S tells her the painting shows her future. All these men would ruin their lives for her.
She begs S to put the painting away, but admits that she is like that woman,
She asks to leave but is not allowed. S says he will make her a real beauty.
He has a vial of anaesthetic and anaesthetizes her.
He sits contemplating her beauty, then begins pricking out a design on her back.
He tells a servant who comes to inquire about the girl that she left long ago.
S is tattoing a huge black widow spider on the girl’s back.
It is a “weird, malevolent creature”.
Finally, he is finished. This work of art has been the supreme effort of his life.
He tells the girl that there is no woman in Japan to compare with her. “All men will be your victims.”
She has to bathe to bring out the colours. It will hurt.
“I can bear anything for the sake of beauty”, she says.
After the bath the girl moans as if in a nightmare.
After an hour, she comes in to S, He tells her “You are my first victim.”
She takes off her kimono to show him her back, which catches a ray of sunlight, wreathing the spider in flames.
S admits to being a sadist. The girl’s emotions are apparently divided.
She calls the painting of the Chinese princess “this horrible thing”. But she discovers her secret self in the painting, and her face resembles that of the princess.
And the girl feels she has found something “long hidden in the darkness of her own heart”.
S anaesthetizes the girl without permission. When she is fast asleep, he begins his torture.
So it is a sort of rape.
When it is all over, the girl admits she will do anything for beauty. So, unconsciously, she did wish for this “torture” and adornment.
The black widow spider is known to eat its mate, so this emphasizes S’s statement that all men will be her victims.
And then there is the painting called “The victims” with a young woman gloating at the pile of men’s corpses, and S’s statement that this will be her future.
Though S is a sadist and derives pleasure from others’ pain, he does show compassion by anasthetizing the girl during the tattooing. And he speaks “with compassion” when he tells her that the bath will hurt her.
As regards the spider, apparently there are no black widow spiders in Japan, so this is a wrong translation, and the reference to the black widow spider eating its mate does not apply.
November 1, 2017
I really enjoyed reading this story because it was not something I would typically read it was a little bit edgier and I would say dark. I am glad I gave it shot because I actually learned a lot, since certain words that I didn't know and I would have to look it up. Seikichi was. a satirist he wanted to inflict pain in men which is why we tattooed them and if the men did not look like they were in pain he got dig the needle deeper into their skin so they could feel even more pain and this time show it. It was also kind of creepy that he had to drug the girl in order for him to tattoo her.It did feel like he was raping and violating her, because she never consented to anything because he drugged her so that was very creepy. I do think the tattoo was a bit ugly, but the meaning behind the tattoo she got was very cool. It was spider but not any spider it was a black widow. I feel like when people think black widows they think independent,strong, and they eat their mates. Which Is what the girl became after sheikichi tattooed her. she was not going to let men push her around, she was going to control the men, and victimize the men. I think he choose her because he was trying to find someone like him so that he could tattoo her. Overall this was a really good story and it really kept you wondering about many things. (263 words)
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