An essay on Japanese aesthetics, originally published in Japan in 1933.
From Wikipedia: “The essay consists of 16 sections that discuss traditional Japanese aesthetics in contrast with change. The text presents personal reflections on topics as diverse as architecture and its fittings, crafts, finishes, jade, food, cosmetics and mono no aware (the art of impermanence). Tanizaki explores in close description the use of space in buildings, lacquerware by candlelight, monastery toilets and women in the dark of a brothel. The essay acts as "a classic description of the collision between the shadows of traditional Japanese interiors and the dazzling light of the modern age”."
