Tattoo
Jun'ichirō TanizakiShanghai Translation Publishing House2022
Rating 3.9- Word count
- 106K words
- Chapters
- 8
- ISBN
- 9787532789405
Tags
Literature Foreign Literature Human NatureAestheticismDiabolismDesireAestheticismShort Story CollectionJapanese LiteratureSummary
This is a collection of early short stories by the Japanese aesthete Jun'ichirō Tanizaki, gathering representative works written between 1910 and 1918 and arranged in chronological order: "Tattoo," "Kirin," "The Boy," "The Entertainer," "The Devil," "The Devil (Continued)," "The Sorrow of a Heretic," and "Light in Rags." These works date from Tanizaki's first years on the literary scene and are the reason he came to be called a "diabolist." The title story, "Tattoo," published in 1910, is regarded as Tanizaki's effective debut. Set in the Edo period, it tells of the young tattoo artist Seikichi, who is obsessed with completing on a woman's skin a masterpiece no one can match; after long waiting he finds his ideal "canvas" and tattoos a giant spider on her back. The story is less about craft than about the aesthetic conviction that beauty is power, and about the ambiguous relationship between beauty and cruelty, conquest and surrender. Nagai Kafū praised it in a dedicated essay, arguing that Tanizaki had opened a field no one had touched in Meiji letters. The other stories vary in subject: "Kirin" uses the ancient tale of Confucius meeting Duke Ling of Wei to stage a confrontation between desire and virtue; "The Boy" depicts role-play and cruel games among a group of children; "The Devil" and "The Devil (Continued)" describe an unsettling desire in an almost pathological voice; "The Sorrow of a Heretic" portrays the inner struggle of a young man at odds with his family. The common ground of the book is an insistent gaze on abnormal psychology, sensory experience, and feminine beauty.Editor's review
如果你只读过《细雪》《阴翳礼赞》里那个古典、从容、讲究的谷崎，这本书会带来完全不同的印象。它收录的八篇小说写于1910年至1918年，是谷崎刚刚登上文坛时最锋利、最不顾忌读者的作品，《刺青》一篇更是他一生的起点。 谷崎的美学在这里显得极端：美是强者，丑是弱者；为了成全一种美，可以冷静地牺牲一个人的生活。他写刺青师对完美肌肤的等待，写孩子在游戏里扮演善恶，写一个人在欲念面前层层剥落的体面。文字清亮而阴冷，几乎没有道德评判，这在当时是一记重击，永井荷风正是因此撰写长文，为这位新人开路。 上海译文这一版由林青华翻译，收录篇目完整，按创作时间排列，八篇小说合成一条完整的思路线索，便于读者观察谷崎日后那些著名长篇小说中的主题如何在此处定型。篇幅不大，却集中呈现了一种后世反复被提及的“恶魔主义”审美：不解释，不忏悔，只把人心中那点隐秘的执念摊在灯下。Who it's for
A good fit for
- 喜欢日本近现代文学、想系统了解谷崎润一郎创作起点的读者
- 对唯美主义、颓废美学及“恶魔主义”文学感兴趣的读者
- 短篇小说爱好者，希望以较短篇幅感受极端审美风格的读者
- 已在《细雪》《春琴抄》之后，想补读谷崎早期作品的人
Not a good fit for
- 对病态心理、施虐受虐等题材较为敏感或反感者
- 希望在小说中看到明确道德判断与正向价值引导的读者
- 偏好情节完整、叙事明快的通俗故事的读者
Reading tips
- 建议先读同名短篇《刺青》，理解“美即强者”这一审美前提，再按书中的时间顺序读完其余七篇。
- 可以配合永井荷风的评论文章一起读，能清楚看出当时文坛为何对这位新人格外震动。
- 阅读时留意他反复出现的意象：肌肤、脚、针刺、凝视，这些元素贯穿了谷崎一生的写作。
- 不必急于评判书中人物的行为是否“正确”，把注意力放在作者如何调动读者的感官与不适感。
About the publisher
Shanghai Translation Publishing House China · Founded in 1978Shanghai Translation Publishing House is a Chinese publisher oriented mainly toward translation and publishing. Its publications cover foreign literature, world classics and classic works, as well as social culture, folk literature and classical poetry. The database contains 2,618 titles, including Never Let Me Go, Les Misérables (2 volumes), Don Quixote (illustrated collector's edition), The Complete Comedies of Molière (4 volumes), The Complete Novels of Kafka (3 volumes), The Collected Works of Dostoevsky (9-volume set), Reason and Persons, and Oedipus Rex (Translation Classics). Its author resources include foreign writers such as Kazuo Ishiguro, Victor Hugo, Cervantes and Molière, as well as translators such as Zheng Kelu, Sun Jiameng, Li Jianwu and Zhang Kun. The publisher has brands such as "Translation Classics Selections" and "Translation Documentary," and emphasizes translated works in foreign literature and the humanities and social sciences, while also publishing bilingual dictionaries and foreign-language educational books. Public information is limited; the above is based on the book information in the database.
Contents
- Tattoo
- Kirin
- The Boy
- The Entertainer
- The Devil
- The Devil (Continued)
- The Sorrow of a Heretic
- Light in Rags
FAQ
这本书是长篇小说《刺青》吗？
不是。它为短篇小说集，书名取自其中同名作品《刺青》，另收《麒麟》《少年》《帮闲》《恶魔》《恶魔（续）》《异端者的悲哀》《褴褛之光》共八篇，均为1910至1918年间的作品。《刺青》在谷崎创作中处于什么位置？
《刺青》发表于1910年，与《麒麟》一道让谷崎正式登上文坛，通常被视为他实质意义的处女作，也奠定了其“恶魔主义”的创作基调。上海译文版与读客版有什么不同？
上海译文版由林青华翻译，收八篇，正文约10.6万字；读客经典文库版由谭晶华翻译，收十四篇，另附漫画、年表等，篇幅更厚，两者是可对照的两个选本。这本书适合入门谷崎润一郎吗？
作为了解其早期风格的入门是合适的，篇幅短、风格集中；但若想先认识谷崎的古典美，也可从《阴翳礼赞》或《春琴抄》开始，再回头读这组早期作品。This site is an index: you start “Search all sources” in your browser, and the entries it lists all point to third-party sites; please judge their availability yourself.
About the author
Jun'ichirō Tanizaki Author · Japanese · 1886–1965Jun'ichirō Tanizaki was a modern Japanese novelist and a leading representative of aestheticist literature. Born in 1886 into a rice-merchant family in Tokyo, he studied in the Japanese literature department of Tokyo Imperial University before dropping out. In 1910 he made his name with the story "The Tattooer," which brought him attention in literary circles. After the Great Kanto Earthquake, he moved to the Kansai region, and his focus gradually shifted toward classical aesthetics. He left important works in both fiction and prose, including "The Makioka Sisters," "Naomi," "In Praise of Shadows," and "A Portrait of Shunkin." He also translated "The Tale of Genji" into modern Japanese, helping to spread the classical work. He died of kidney disease in 1965. His writing is delicate and refined, and he had a profound influence on modern Japanese aestheticist literature.