The earthquake that devastated Tokyo and Yokohama...

The earthquake that devastated Tokyo and Yokohama in 1923 was a dramatic turning point in Tanizaki Jun'ichiro's career. For almost a year, he had been living a fast life on the Bluff, the home of most of the Westerners who gave Yokohama its cosmopolitan reputation. The earthquake forced him to evacuate to Osaka, where he settled down to wait for Tokyo and Yokohama to rebuild; but, unlike most of the other refugees, he stayed on in western Japan. Though he visited Tokyo from time to time, he would never again live there.

Thirty-seven years old at the time of the earthquake, Tanizaki had made a name for himself as a writer of audacious, sometimes shocking, stories, plays, and motion picture scenarios.

-Anthony H. Chambers, Introduction, Naomi by Junichiro Tanizaki