This is an essay on aesthetics by one of the greatest Japanese novelists. The
text ranges over architecture, jade, food, toilets, and combines an acute sense
of the use of space in buildings, as well as perfect descriptions of lacquerware
under candlelight and women in the darkness of the house of pleasure. The essay
forms a classic description of the collision between the shadows of traditional
Japanese interiors and the dazzling light of the modern age.