In Praise of Shadows. A YouTube Documentary. On Japanese/Buddhist aesthetics in the home.

Based on the book by Tanizaki in 1933. To inspire us to see our home with fresh eyes.

I appreciate NHK Television, a Japanese television channel, for some of its documentaries on Japanese culture and tradition.

I engaged in a YouTube search for documentaries on Japanese aesthetics. To my delight, I found the NHK In Praise of Shadows documentary available on YouTube.

HEADINGS

An Exceptional Documentary

On the Beauty of Women

Love of Space. Love of Harmony

A Meditative Documentary

A couple of months ago, I watched twice the 60-minute NHK documentary In Praise of Shadows, based on an 80-page book published in 1933 by the renowned Japanese author, Junichiro Tanizaki (1886-1965).

I bought the book on Amazon. It proved to be a refined meditation on Japanese/Buddhist aesthetics in the home and elsewhere.

An Exceptional Documentary

The documentary, a masterpiece, reveals the classic elegance of the book, via film, with outstanding commentary, interviews and visuals of the aesthetics of the home and elsewhere.

If you experience a love of the subtle, a love of harmony of light and shadows, then do watch this documentary, an authentic work of art, a worthy parallel to the book.

You may find inspiration for your home and elsewhere in unexpected ways.

To see the 60 minute documentary, go to YouTube and type: Tanizaki Junichiro on Japanese Aesthetics In Praise of Shadows. (A link is unavailable)

On the Beauty of Women

Tanizaki had immense appreciation for the beauty of women. Women were “an inexhaustible source of inspiration his entire life,” the commentator says.

The author wrote “Beauty does not resides in physical objects. It resides in the patterns of shadows.

“I do not believe beauty exists apart from the workings of shadows.”

Tanizaki referred to the necessity of light/shadows to reveal the sublime beauty of a woman in her stillness and interior silence.

From 38.31-45.33 in the documentary, you will behold an elegant example of Japanese womanhood in poignant moments of repose.

Of what words cannot speak, we must pass over in silence – to quote the closing words in a book by a much-loved Austrian philosopher.

Love of Space. Love of Harmony

We witness in the documentary the sparsity of the traditional Japanese home.

Home matters. We spend more hours in our home than any other location from conception onwards. The documentary reminds us of the importance of a mindful and meditative relationship, via our senses, and what we see, hear, smell, taste and touch at home.

Let us employ all of our senses in our contact with home with our eyes, our open doorway to seeing what surrounds us.

At times, we bring our mindfulness to bear on our home, perhaps every room, our bedsitter, our shared space, a cupboard and more. Our love of harmony and order changes the presentation, perhaps keeping practical and aesthetic necessities and passing onto the charity shops or dispossing of the unncessary.

Love of space, an important feature of the Buddha’s teachings, replaces surplus. We feel the benefit, the satisfacion and peace of mind in such changes.

Do take a look around your home. Are changes needed - major or subtle? It does not have to cost money or a little. You can sell unwanted items online and find precious bargains in the same online market websites.

A Meditative Documentary

Do watch the entire documentary as a meditation. Listen to the commentary, the voices in Japan of profound comments on Tanizaki’s insights and be receptive to the meditative music.

Listen to final words of the 53.59 commentary followed by the closing words of Tanizaki.

Remember, he wrote the book in 1933.

I had a tear in my eye on the closure of the documentary

Enjoy.

I reviewed the book, In Praise of Shadows, on Substack on 21 December 2024.