Tanizaki Jun’ichiro praises shadow. In the dark depths of the traditional Japanese home, where shadows crouch in all the corners, the gold of a lacquer painting gleams, and gentle light is diffused through translucent paper stretched over the delicate wooden frame of a sliding door so that one can hardly distinguish the source of the daylight that captures and reflects the objects so beautifully in the half light. Jun’ ichiro praises shadows. And shadows praise light.