Natsume Sōseki

Why does Jun'ichirō Tanizaki label his compilation of essays as an appraisal of shadows? What influenced his writing choices and inspired his word choice? The title is originally 陰翳礼讃 which in Japanese translates to Shadow of Praise and in Chinese translates to Shine. However, when one explores into the anatomy of those original words in Chinese; 陰 translates to Yin which is a Chinese philosophy characterized as feminine, sustaining, earthly, dark, cold, and opposite to the Yang philosophy; 翳…