SOURCE: A review of The Secret History of the Lord of Musashi and Arrowroot, in Southern Humanities Review, Vol. 27, No. 1, Winter, 1993, pp. 86-91.

In the following review, Miyama Ochner explores the mother fixation portrayed in Arrowroot (Yoshino kuzu) and the perversion of the title character in The Secret History of the Lord of Musashi (Bushūkō Hiwaj.

Tanizaki is often regarded as having remarkably consistent themes despite the wide range of his subject matter, settings, and style. As a writer who is profoundly interested in the workings of the subconscious, he treated such recurrent themes as the femme fatale, foot fetishism, sado-masochism, longing for mother, coprophilia, and predilection for crepuscular beauty. Except foot fetishism, these themes appear in the two short novels [The Secret History of the Lord of Musashi and Arrowroot]. . . .

Another of Tanizaki's recurrent themes .. . is the child's longing for its mother. Tanizaki's own mother was...