The grand old man and the great tradition : essays on Tanizaki Jun'ichiro in honor of Adriana Boscaro

Abstract

Adriana Boscaro and Tanizaki Jun'ichir5: two names firmly linked in my mind and in those of many others who feel connected to Boscaro either on a personal level or through a shared devotion to the work of Tanizaki. This book is primarily conceived as an homage to both the work of the "grand old man," in all its inexhaustible rich- ness, and to Boscaro's tireless contributions to the study of Tanizaki in Italy and around the world. Recently, while in Tokyo, I was struck by the enduring impact of the interna- tional conference Boscaro organized in Venice in 1995 on the joint thirtieth anniver- sary of Tanizaki's death and of the founding of the Japanese Studies Institute at the University of Venice. This important event, which attracted scholars from all over the world, offered the chance to discuss Tanizaki and exchange ideas in this beauti- ful venue, Boscaro's favorite city. Thanks to Boscaro's energetic commitment, Ven- ice became a center for Tanizaki studies that produced two volumes based on the conference proceedings. These two volumes are now cited in all scholarly works on Tanizaki, and are regarded as seminal publications in the field.1 While the Venice Conference is the best-known link between Boscaro and Ta- nizaki, she had already contributed actively to Tanizaki's literary success in Italy.2 In the early 1980s, when Tanizaki's later works were already well known in Italy thanks to Suga Atsuko's translations, Boscaro was among those who exposed Italian readers to Tanizaki's earlier writings with translations of Shisei, Majutsushi, Hokan, Himitsu, and Ningyo no nageki. In that same period, Boscaro edited the first major collection of Tanizaki's writings in Italian—sixteen works covering the entire span of the author's career, published in a series devoted to world classics—and contrib- uted six translations to it.