Original language:
Japanese Translated from: English
Authors: Tanizaki, Jun'ichiro
Translated by: Dyke, Milda
Full translated source bibliographical description:
Tanizaki, Jun'ichiro. The key. New York: Alfred A Knopf, 1961.
ISBN: 9955-601-68-X
Published in: Vilnius
Published on: 2005
Publisher: Versus aureus
The Key is a novel about relationship between 44 years old wife Ikuko and 55 years old husband. They both write their own diaries and the whole novel is told through their diary entries. The main reason why they write diaries is that Japanese decorum would not have allowed them to talk about their sexual problems in person.
The novel begins with the husband’s description of his wife‘s beauty and her insatiable sexual appetite. In his diary he writes about his own sexual fetishes such as foot fetish and other body parts that sexually excite him. Despite Ikuko‘s sexual appetite she refuses those advances due to her strict traditional Kyoto “Feminine modesty“. But the main problem is that Ikuko admits that although she loves her husband, she has never found him sexually attractive. The reader is soon introduced to other book characters: daughter Toshiko of Ikuko and her husband and Kimura, the man who wants to marry Toshiko. The twist in the story, however, is that Ikuko feels sexually attracted to Kimura.
The sexual life between Ikuko and her Husband becomes very complicated when she gets drunk by a particular label of brandy and always ends up passing out in the bath. Ikuko‘s drunken episodes and her passing out in the bath results that Kimura sees her naked as Ikuko‘s husband sees Kimura‘s helping to dry Ikuko‘s body. When Kimura heads home, Ikuko‘s husband fulfills all his sexual fetishes while Ikuko pretends sleeping and being half awake, and Ikuko also uses the opportunity to imagine herself having sex with Kimura. This becomes a regular affair for the trio.
The other part of the story is that when Kimura gives a Polaroid camera to Ikuko‘s husband, his fetishes expands and he starts taking his drunk and naked wife‘s photos of her naked body parts like her feet or ears. However this fails to satisfy him and so he hands the camera to Kimura to develop those photos for him. Ikuko starts going for a long walks in the city. But they both know that she is seeing Kimura in some hotel where they both stay. Driven by jealousy and new heights of sexual fantasy, Ikuko‘s husband starts having problems with his heart. The doctor advises him to stop drinking alcohol and having sex because of the high blood pressure. But he ignores these advises and becomes paralysed and after that he soon dies.
Jun\’ichirō Tanizaki (24 July 1886-30 July 1965) was one of the major writers of modern Japanese literature. Some of his works present a shocking world of sexuality and destructive erotic obsessions. Others, less sensational, subtly portray the dynamics of family life in the context of the rapid changes in 20th-century Japanese society.