This compact, essay from 1933 by Japanese author Jun'ichirō Tanizaki is a quiet ode to the shadow play of existence. In a world that strives to be ever brighter, shinier, and more perfect, Tanizaki proposes a radically different aesthetic: one of imperfection, transience, and darkness.

Tanizaki reveals that beauty is not an absolute value, but a culturally constructed perspective. Where the West is drawn to symmetry, light, reflection and perfection, the East embraces the matte, the weathered, the subdued. Instead of a porcelain bathroom with gleaming steel, he praises the deep brown of shadowed wood, the soft glow of cracked lacquer visible only by candlelight, the craquelure in ceramics as a testament to use and history.

What resonates so deeply in this book is the reminder that our sense of beauty is not universal, but shaped by tradition, climate, religion, and rhythm. Where the West sees Enlightenment or Light as a near-metaphysical ideal, the Shadow here takes on a nearly sacred quality. It is not concealment, but a veiling or masking of that which is cherished. Beauty does not reveal itself in brightness, but in suggestion, in evocation in nuance, in half-light.

The book reminds us that spatial design is not just about the visual, but about atmosphere - about what is suggested, what is not shown. In an era of overexposure, where LED lights penetrate even the smallest corners of our lives, In Praise of Shadows invites us to restrain. To revere the unknown. To design with shadow, silence, and time.

Tanizaki’s insights align seamlessly with our attention to what we call contextual, soulful space. They show how light and darkness together tell the story of a place, and how architecture is not merely functional or visual, but above all cultural and sensory. The matte, the imperfect, often speaks louder than the polished and pristine.

Tanizaki’s essay is a quiet protest against the global standardization of taste. It is a plea for cultural nuance, for honoring local sensibilities, and for embracing the imperfect. In this way, it perfectly reflects one of AMORV’s core values: diversity as a source of beauty. For beauty itself is systemic - shaped in relation to time, place, ritual, and culture.