TADE KU MUSHI

   Tade ku mushi (1929; tr. Some Prefer Nettles, 1955), a novel by Tanizaki Jun’ichiro, explores the loveless marriage between protagonist Kaname and his wife, Misako. Each is reluctant to initiate divorce, and throughout the novel their relationship finds parallels in the false dichotomy between Japan and the West. As the story unfolds the reader comes to see that Kaname’s sense of traditional Japan is more fantasy than real, and that he views women more as dolls or puppets than as human beings.