Tanizaki Junichiro's Aesthetic Consciousness: A Case Study of Shunkinsho

Shunkinsho, publishedin 1933, is regarded as the representative work of Tanizaki Junichiro, a famous contemporary writer of aestheticism in Japan. The novel indicatesthe writer's return to Japanese traditional aesthetic consciousness. The paper analyzes the heroine, Shunkin, about her pursuit of aesthetics and the hero,Sasuke, his worship of female and loss of self, which reveals their character flaw and pursuit of aesthetics. The paper holds the view that the novel highlights the transcendence of binary opposition by using aestheticism and female as the theme andincompleteness and eternity as the basic standard. The work also reveals Tanizaki's unique literary charm and the cultural connotation of the return to Japanese tradition.