The Tattoo and Other Stories

“Reintroduces the revered Japanese writer Tanizaki (1886-1965) to a new generation with eight stellar stories […] Chambers’ don’t-miss introduction includes a fascinating explanation of the new translations of “The Tattoo” and “From the Life of Shunkin.” Chambers credits Vincent with “restor[ing] Tanizaki’s sentences as he wrote them” in the hope that today’s English-language readers are “more accustomed to such experimentation.” Intentionally renewed, “Tanizaki’s modernist prose” awaits savvy audiences.” —Booklist

Junichiro Tanizaki

Junichiro Tanizaki (1886-1965) is widely considered one of Japan’s finest authors. Born in the heart of Tokyo as the city began to modernise, he studied Japanese literature at Tokyo University and made his debut with the acclaimed short story ‘The Tattoo’. Following the great Kanto earthquake of 1923, he moved to the Kyoto-Osaka region, the setting for his masterpiece The Makioka Sisters. He is the author of Naomi, Some Prefer Nettles, The Key, and the essay ‘In Praise of Shadows’, among many other works of fiction and nonfiction. He received the Order of Culture in 1949 and is the namesake of the distinguished Tanizaki Prize for literature.

Paul McCarthy

Paul McCarthy has taught Japanese language, literature, and religion, as well as English language and literature and comparative literature, at universities in America and Japan. He is an emeritus professor of Surugadai University. He continues to translate and comment on Japanese literature, notably on Junichiro Tanizaki and Mishima Yukio. His translation of Tanizaki’s A Cat, a Man, and Two Women won the Japan-United States Friendship Commission Prize in 1991.

Anthony H. Chambers

Anthony H. Chambers is the author of Remembering Tanizaki Junichiro and Matsuko and translator of many works by Junichiro Tanizaki, including Naomi and The Secret History of the Lord of Musashi. For his study and translation of Ueda Akinari’s Tales of Moonlight and Rain, he received the Japan-United States Friendship Commission Prize. He is Professor Emeritus of Japanese at Arizona State University and has also taught at Wesleyan University and the Associated Kyoto Program.

J. Keith Vincent

J. Keith Vincent teaches Japanese, Comparative Literature, and Women’s, Gender, & Sexuality Studies at Boston University, where he also directs the MFA program in Literary Translation. His translation of Okamoto Kanoko’s A Riot of Goldfish won the Japan-United States Friendship Commission Prize, and his translation of Junichiro Tanizaki’s novella Devils in Daylight was shortlisted for the Lucien Stryk Asian Translation Prize in 2018. His retranslation of Natsume Soseki’s novel Michikusa is forthcoming from Tuttle.

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