In 1933, the Japanese author Jun’ichirō Tanizaki wrote a seminal essay about his native country’s aesthetics, “In Praise of Shadows.” While Western cultures search for light and clarity, he noted, Eastern cultures valued shadow and subtlety. Tanizaki looked at architecture and the dynamics of interior space, and examined such things as food and cosmetics. The German artist Anselm Kiefer has used Tanizaki’s essay as a point of departure for the exhibition “Solaris.” Thirty new works by Kiefer—on themes of creation, destruction, and rebirth—are in residence at this 16th-century castle in Kyoto, just in time for the cherry blossoms. —Elena Clavarino