Naomi (novel)

Naomi (novel)

Naomi (痴人の愛, Chijin no Ai?, lit. A Fool's Love) is a Japanese novel by Japanese writer Jun'ichirō Tanizaki (1886–1965). Writing of the novel began in 1924, and from March to June, Osaka's Morning News (大阪朝日新聞, Osaka Asahi Shinbun?) published the first several chapters of the serial. Four months later, the periodical Female (女性, Josei?) started to publish the remaining chapters. Various Japanese and United States publishers have compiled the chapters and published them as a book since 1947.

Narrated in the first person by the protagonist, a salaryman named Jōji, the novel follows his attempt to groom a Eurasian-looking girl, the titular Naomi, to be a Westernized woman. Naomi is a significant work in its comic depiction of Japanese culture of the era and its fascination with the West. The clash between older and newer generations over the more progressive depictions of women, such as Naomi, has been viewed as a clash over Japan's transition into the modern period.