In Praise of Shadows is an essay on aesthetics by a Japanese man of letters, Junichiro Tanizaki. This was written in 1933 between the Meiji Revolution and the Second World War - the old Japan is still there, with the new Japan growing on top of it but not yet reaching its fiery apotheosis.

He starts with the loo, and how great old Japanese lavatories are, wooden and outside, in nature, places of reflection and harmony and, above all, darkness. This is contrasted with the Western aesthetic of sparkling white porcelain, painfully bright and sterile, and is the jumping off point for an exploration of the differences between Japanese and Western aesthetics and a lamentation of the necessity of having adopted Western technology because the West got there first.

While Japan chose to adopt Western technology, they did so on their own terms.  ...