The Key

I could launch into a whole spiel about the nature of truth and all that junk philosophers have been making a living from for a millenium and then some, but I won't. The Key is a work that will leave you wondering what exactly truth "is" in the Clinton way of speaking. After more than 20 years of marriage, a husband and wife are finally becoming sick of each other. The husband sees his wife as sexually repressed and feels that he has to write his frustrations and fantasies in his diary. He's kinda torn over whether he wants her to read it or not. The wife on the other hand sees her decade older husband as disgusting and demanding. She doesn't desire him physically as such. She just uses him for the act of sex and even that leaves much to be desired. Enter a friend of their daughter named Kimura and things start to come to a head when he just happens to resemble the wive's favorite movie star. She uses her desire for him and her husband's jealousy to try to enliven their marriage. The problem is, like drugs and capitalism, you become acclimated to a certain dosage and then you have to escalate more and more. Then things become outlandish chaos.This book is another masterpiece by Tanazaki which is crammed into a little close to 200 pages. I'm in awe of the dude. He takes these situations that seem so cliched and makes them into something great. He is a true master. Here we have a meditation on marriage and sex. How do two people who find out they married someone incompatible with themselves and yet continue to exist in the falseness of it? Many couples find themselves in the same situation. Lots of times they end up destroying each other. If only these characters could be honest with each other and speak their minds. Even the fact that they could really only communicate their deepest thoughts through diaries shows their weakness. I recommend this book highly. If you like it, check out another of his novels entitled Quicksand.

The Key is written in the form of two parallel diaries, diaries of a middle-aged couple over a four month period - plus a couple of months entries to finish off the story. The man is a 55 year-old academic who loves his wife and feels sexually inadequate. The woman is a 44 year-old traditional Japanese housewife, sexually both repressed and voracious. Their college-aged daughter is cool to the young man her parents present as a potential husband. The young man appears to be more interested in Mother than in daughter.Through the diaries one observes the internal workings of the marriage. The husband hides from himself everywhere except in his diary. His wife hides from herself even in the diary. Each expects the other to "snoop" so that they can communicate through their writing what they cannot speak openly. And they use their sexual relationship as the metaphor for their entire relationship.The author has done an excellent job of uncovering the ambiguity often present in relationships and the complexity of knowing even one's own motivations.

This small novel in the form of two interweaving diaries is a mere 160 pages long. In fact, it is 320 pages long. You have to read it twice to enjoy it fully.The two diaries are written by a 55-year old professor and his wife who is 11 years his junior. To state the facts bluntly: He is oversexed and under-equipped; she is over-equipped and loathes him. In short, they are incompatible. They have been married for more than 20 years. As long as he sticks to his books and she to her traditional upbringing and old-fashioned morality the marriage works. Then, on New Year's Day, the husband starts to write in his diary about the sexual relations with his wife, knowing that she will read it. She, in turn, begins to write a diary in the knowledge that he will read it. A game of intricate manipulation begins during which he gains some momentary fulfillment of his desires and she finally finds a surprising solution to her marriage problem. It is an empty, ironic triumph, though. But I don't want to give away the plot.The title of the novel alludes to the key to the husband's diary. A key is an instrument to open something that is locked. The husband intended the key to open up the heart of his wife to his needs. This is not what happens. His diary sets in motion another process. The key opens up something unexpected in his wife, ironically and tragically.The novel can be read on several levels: as a mystery novel, a classic tragedy, an essay on marriage, a study in deception and self-deception, an exercise in the use of manipulation, a deliberation on sexual politics and obsession (even though this is the most un-erotic book about sex I have ever read), a story of female liberation, or a philosophical musing about the delusions of human beings. It is absolutely a five-star performance. Please note the fine craftsmanship of Tanizaki. How he manipulates the reader, and how he structures the diary entries to reflect the balance of power between husband and wife (with the husband's fading influence and health, his diary entries fade, too). Please note, too, the fine moral balance that Tanizaki strikes. You may despise and pity his characters at the same time. Tanizaki completely refrains from letting his own ethical inclinations show in his characters. It is the process set in motion by the husband's diary that gives each of the two main characters what they desire. Let yourself be surprised.

Kagi or The Key is a fascinating novel in which Tanizaki brilliantly creates a means of communication for a husband and wife whose sexual relations need a new level of passion. The English translation loses the effect that the Japanese novel possesses; the husband writes in the more modern characters of katakana, while the wife, Ikuko writes in the more traditional Hiragana. The fascinating part of the novel is how well it expresses sexual desires without having the characters directly relate their wants and needs to one another. This follows the more conservative traditions of the Japanese, and suggests that feelings and emotions are taboo and should be kept to oneself. But the overall sense of the novel implies a strong feeling of tension that is only alleviated by deception. The characters are forced to control their sexual instincts and lie to themselves by not opening up to their parter. Truth is also another skeptical idea that is toyed with and conventionalism is a factor as well. The reader is never aware if either Ikuko or her husband ever read the other's diary and this leaves an aura of mystery; a positive aspect the author creates in the story. Overall, an intensifying work of art in both English and Japanese.