The novel follows the diary entries of Ikuko and her husband and their deteriorating marriage. The husband grows dissatisfied with their sex life and hatches a plan to manipulate Ikuko into becoming more sexually adventurous by getting her drunk on brandy every night. This leads to several incidents where Ikuko loses consciousness and the husband takes intimate photos and touches her without consent while pretending to be her lover Kimura. Their daughter Toshiko disapproves of the husband's treatment of Ikuko. The novel explores themes of sexuality, fetishism, and the breakdown of trust in the marriage.

1. l
THE KEY
A BOOK REPORT IN AFRO-ASIAN LITERATURE

2. JUN'ICHIRŌ TANIZAKI biography
Junichiro Tanizaki (1886-1965) was a
Japanese novelist, essayist, and
playwright known for his stylistic
virtuosity and depiction of unusual
psychological situations.
Junichiro Tanizaki, born in Tokyo, the
son of a rice broker, received a
conventional education. Entering the
Imperial University in 1908, he
studied Japanese classical literature
but left without taking a degree.
From a very young age he was
interested in literary pursuits and
soon achieved his ambition of
devoting his life to art.
Eschewing the flourishing naturalism
of the day, Tanizaki sought to create
works of beauty through style and
Junichiro Tanizaki.
mood, inspired in part by the Renowned Japanese
Japanese past and also by certain Novelist (google.com)
Western writers such as Edgar Allan
Poe, Charles Baudelaire, and Oscar
Wilde. Throughout his fiction run
strains of eroticism and lyricism
together with a good deal of
imagery taken from the acute
observation of real life. The character
of a dominant or destructive woman
is much in evidence in many of his
novels, as are subtle contrasts of
new and old, Japanese and
Occidental. Tanizaki saw and

3. depicted vividly the clash between political but not quite. The play
Japan and the West, but on the Okuni and Gohei (1922) is complex,
esthetic plane. historical, and violent.
CAREER AS A NOVELIST With Chijin no Ai (1925; A Fool's
Love) Tanizaki embarked on his first
Shisei (1910; The Tatoo), set in the long novel. Set in the foreign quarter
premodern era of the early 19th of Yokohama, it depicts a man's
century, depicts a tattooer and artist obsession with a Eurasian prostitute
who becomes enslaved to a who bears a resemblance to Mary
beautiful woman after tattooing a Pickford. It may be an ironic
spider on her back while she slept. commentary on Japan's dilemma of
The richness and beauty of the style Westernization. After the great
brought Tanizaki to the immediate earthquake of 1923 Tanizaki had left
attention of the reading public. Tokyo to establish himself in the
Shonen (1912; Children) pursues the more traditional and picturesque
vein of "diabolism" with the Kyoto-Osaka area, where he was to
depiction of children committing remain. He now turned his attention
unspeakable, and unspecified, to depicting the more glamorous
horrors. Jotaro (1914) explores the aspects of the Japanese past and
subjects of masochism and madness could look back on modern Tokyo
on the part of a famous author. O- with a certain disdain.
Tsuya Goroshi (1915; The Killing of
From this time on, Tanizaki's greatest
O-Tsuya), with a picturesque setting
works were written. Tade Kuu Mushi
of city life in the recent premodern
(1929; Some Prefer Nettles) portrays
past, is a tale of infidelity, lust, and
modern life in Kobe and Kyoto, the
murder in a vivid, dramatic, and
muted charms of Kyoto versus the
essentially modern technique.
blatant cheapness of the modern
In Itansha no Kanashimi (1917; The port city with its shabby
Sorrows of a Heretic) the theme of cosmopolitanism. Manji (1930;
masochism is again set forth. Haha o Whirl), a stylistic tour de force
Kouru-ki (1919; Pining for Mother) written entirely in Osaka dialect,
depicts mother love and nostalgia deals with suicide and the perverse.
for the world of the preceding In Yoshino Kudzu (1931), a tone
generation. Chiisana Okoku (1918; A poem that is part essay, part fiction,
Small Kingdom) has for its theme the hero falls in love with a girl who
masochism as well as subjection to reminds him of his deceased mother.
inevitable tyranny. It is almost Momoku Monogatari (1931; A Blind

4. Man's Tale) is a historical tale of the of 10th-century life by Lady
16th century in which prominent Murasaki. This appears to have
historical personages are "seen" influenced some of the descriptive
through the eyes of a narrator who is passages in his long novel
a blind masseur and musician. Sasameyuki (1948; The Makioka
Stylistically it is one of Tanizaki's Sisters), a study of a prominent old
greatest achievements, as is Ashikari Osaka merchant family in decline. It
(1932), a discursive evocation of is an important document of
passion somewhat reminiscent of a contemporary social customs.
No play. Kaoyo (1933), a play set in Returning to the Japanese past with
the 14th century, depends on mood Shosho Shigemoto no Haha (1949;
and strangeness for its effect. The Mother of Captain Shigemoto),
Tanizaki again treated the theme of
Shunkinsho (1934; A Portrait of
a youth burdened by the memory of
Shunkin), a most exotic tale, depicts
his beautiful mother. Kagi (1956; The
an imperious woman named
Key) and Futen Rojin Nikki (1962;
Shunkin, who is a beautiful blind
Diary of a Mad Old Man) offer vivid
musician, and her abject body
and humorous descriptions of
servant. Neko to Shozo to Futari no
modern depravity in the postwar
Onna (1936; A Cat, Shozo, and Two
world.
Women) is a perverse and comic
novel with a modern setting and Elected to the Japanese Academy of
humorous tone. Art in 1923 and decorated with the
Order of Culture in 1949, Tanizaki
During the 1930s Tanizaki had been
occupied a position of eminence in
working on a modern version of the
the world of letters for many years.
Tale of Genji, the great classic novel
He died in July 1965.
Source:
http://biography.yourdictionary.com/junichiro-tanizaki

5. THE KEY (KAGI) the novel
The Key (Kagi, 鍵), is a novel written by Jun'ichirō Tanizaki in 1956. The
story was translated into English by Howard Hibbett and published
by Vintage International Books. (Wikipedia.org)
“A dark, personal account of an expiring marriage, told from both the
husband's and the wife's point of view, it makes for an interesting glimpse
into sexual fetishism and the loss of trust, but as with many novels focussed
on sex, the language veers from matter-of-fact to vague, and it's hard to
find a reason to like any of the characters. Of course, it's not compulsory for
a novel's characters to be likable but it does help if the story is to be more
than just a diversion. "Wide Sargasso Sea" might be a more interesting look
at similar themes: infidelity, distrust, and cynicism.” Jeremy Simms
(http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/396048336)
movie portrayal
JAPANESE FILM
Odd Obsession (鍵 Kagi, lit. "The Key") is a 1959 Japanese drama film directed by
Kon Ichikawa. It was entered into the 1960 Cannes Film Festival, where it won the
Jury Prize. It was based on the novel The Key, by Japanese novelist Junichiro
Tanizaki. (Wikipedia.org)
ITALIAN FILM
LA CHIAVE (the key) 1983 (google.com)

6. THE MAIN CHARACTERS
IKUKO’S HUSBAND sexually imaginative often pre-occupied with…
A fifty-five year-old professor who lives a barren sexual relationship with his wife Ikuko. He is described as
an ailing husband with physical features that are rather daunting. He is dissatisfied with her wife’s inability
to suffice him and therefore plots a scheme to turn her as sexually proactive as possible. He is physically
worn-out and loves reading a lot of novels. He is sexually imaginative often pre-occupied with a perpetual
astonishment of his wife’s body. He is described as a slacking man with an aging and grotesque skin by
his wife. He is the protagonist of the story who honestly documents his thoughts, predictions, emotions
and complains constituting almost half of the plot.
IKUKO gorgeous but morally-reserved…
A forty-four year-old wife described as a gorgeous but morally-reserved woman who is greatly influenced
by her parents’ upbringing to always act as a demure and a reticent woman. She loathes being with her
husband but feel obliged to fulfill her duties as a partner. She is attracted to Kimura, her daughter’s fiancé,
but keeps her feelings to herself. She is also the protagonist of the story who reflected a gradual detach
from her antiquated principles to a complete reformation of herself as an after effect of his husband’s
plan.
TOSHIKO she hated how her father treats her mother…
The couple’s only daughter described as a more reserved and extremely doubtful woman than her
mother. She utterly hates how her father treats her mother, Ikuko like a sexual slave. She is Kimura’s
fiancée but she seems to feel uninterested about him. She later decides to get away from her parents and
live at Madame Osaka’s apartment.
KIMURA well-built man who works…
The fiancée of Toshiko. He is a well-educated gentleman who often visits her girlfriend’s family. Ikuko
describes him as having a near resemblance to an American actor of whom she is having crush on. He is a
well-built man who works and studies in the university where Toshiko studies. Out of sheer shyness to
disagree, he is forced to conspire with Ikuko’s husband as his personal image developer.

7. THE MINOR CHARACTERS
DR. KODAMA AND DR. NOMA
The doctor of the family.
MADAME OSAKA
Toshiko’s teacher in French language. She lives with her bedridden husband. She is described as a lonely
soul deeply attached with Toshiko.
BAYA
The family’s house servant.
MISS KAWAI
Ikuko’s personal supplier of clothes and accessories.
MADAME KOIKE
Ikuko’s aid when her husband collapsed.

8. SUMMARY
New Year’s Day
The husband started to write a self-kept diary about his sexual disappointments to her wife, Ikuko.
He tells his dismays and complaints about Ikuko’s firm conservativeness extremely affecting his
sexual appetite. He also voices his declining vigor and his fear that its severity may prompt Ikuko to
find another man.
January 4
Ikuko unintentionally saw the key of his husband’s diary in front of the bookshelf one day while
tidying his room. Yet she did not bother to access it thinking that it’s against his moral virtues.
Instead, she commenced to write a diary of herself as well and promised to never let his husband
gain knowledge about it. She notes about the inability of her husband to satisfy her because of her
own fault. She tells about her husband’s complains of being too rigid and disallowing during their
sexual encounters. Ikuko also thinks how daunting their sexual relationship has been and how she
hated the wrinkled face of his husband along with his unnerving way of sexual foreplays.
January 7
Kimura, the fiancé of the couple’s daughter, Toshiko paid a visit. They had a small tete-a-tete at
home while drinking brandy at the side. He notices the particular closeness of Ikuko and Kimura
and how reticent is Toshiko towards Kimura. He got jealous about the idea and shortly dismissed it.
He later tells Ikuko not to pay a close attention between the young couples but she only ignored him.
January 8
Ikuko remembers being intoxicated by the brandy she had last night. She narrates about their
sexual activity and how she winced after having looked at his husband’s wrinkled face. She goes on
telling about her husband’s declining vigor and his horrible sexual styles that make her mood utterly
spoiled.
January 13
The husband feels strange about asking Kimura to stay for the dinner. As they savored the meal, his
jealousy stirred up again yet it seems to excite an unusual feeling of happiness inside him. He thinks
Kimura could play an interesting role in his sexual life.
January 17
He tells that they have started drinking brandy every evening and how he feels seduced by the
unusual sight of his wife partly drank and tipsy. He tells that his main goal is to get her into bed yet
Ikuko appears to be more rigid when drunk.
January 20

9. Ikuko suffers from a head ache after drinking too much brandy. She notices that Kimura seems to
worry about her while her husband kept on offering her a drink. She knows that her husband knows
about her weakness so she struggles to keep within the limits.
January 28
Ikuko lies fainted in the wooden bath tub after drinking too much liquor. Toshiko found her after
Kimura got worried and started looking for her. He and Kimura got her off the tub and dried her –
he doing the lower part and Kimura the upper part. Kimura guessed that it is a case of cerebral
anemia. The husband called Dr. Kodama and the specialist verified that it is the cause.
January 29
Ikuko narrates remembering everything before she became unconscious. She vaguely remembers of
drifting to a deep sleep and woke up already in bed. She feels having a heavy head and slept all day
long.
January 29
As soon as Kimura left the house at past three, the husband thought of fulfilling what he had longed
desired – to see his wife naked body against the brimming of an intense light. He fired up the stove
effecting a warmer temperature and keenly observed whether Ikuko is deeply slumbering.
Afterwards, he got his fluorescent lamp and positioned it at the side where Ikuko lies and saw her
entirety. He examined his wife’s unblemished body and did everything he desired to do. Ikuko stirred
up a little bit but stayed still. Ikuko’s husband experienced an extraordinary sexual drive. At eight,
Kimura telephoned him and asked Ikuko’s condition
January 30
Ikuko tells the lingering sensation she felt the night when she fell unconscious. It started as a warm
feeling enveloping her body. Upon opening her eyes, she saw her husband looking intently at her
entirety. Ikuko felt the kisses of her husband all around her body – particularly those that he
yearned to caress. Awakened, her husband had her drink a medicine through his mouth and she fell
on a deep sleep. Ikuko responded with an overwhelming desire to the body who she thought was
Kimura’s. She enjoyed the whole thing but is intrigued about thinking Kimura during that moment.
January 30
Kimura phoned Ikuko’s husband to ask if Ikuko is fine. The husband invited Kimura for a drinking
session which he immediately refused thinking about what happened to Ikuko. He paid a visit
afterwards and is finally persuaded to drink after seeing Ikuko in a fine condition. The exact thing
happened after from falling into a deep sleep to the overwhelming sexual intercourse.
February 9

10. Toshiko decided to get away from her parents and asked Ikuko to allow her to live in her teacher’s
house. Ikuko tells that he never liked Kimura thinking that he looks like the American actor she has
had a big crush on. Ikuko suspected her of becoming aware of what they have been doing with her
husband.
February 14
Kimura-san offered to borrow his friend’s Polaroid camera to Ikuko’s husband. This sparked within
him an idea. He also wonders whether Kimura has already known what he has been doing lately.
February 16
Ikuko tells about having nearly caught by her husband writing notes in her diary. She is cautious
not to be found but surely, he has heard the rustling of rice papers. She knew that her husband has
finally found out that she also is keeping her own diary.
February 18
Ikuko’s husband tells about the fourth night Ikuko has been repeating Kimura’s name during their
sexual intercourse. He thought if he was only doing that to benefit him or to make him feel jealous.
Kimura gives hands him the Polaroid camera.
February 19
Toshiko confronts Ikuko telling her, “Papa would kill you”. Ikuko felt an unusual feeling when
Toshiko said it. She thinks if she is secretly angry at her about Kimura. She decided to cover her
diary with scotch tapes and placed a tooth pick in a particular page to keep her husband away from
it.
February 24
Ikuko’s husband has been taking pictures of her naked body for quite a time. He plans to include it
in his diary thinking that it would embarrass Ikuko by the time she sees it.
February 27
Ikuko goes out for a movie with Kimura and Toshiko. Her husband is eager to send her out and she
knows the reason why.
February 27
Ikuko’s husband found out that she was keeping a diary of herself one day when she is out with
Toshiko and Kimura. He finds it hilarious when it is sealed with scotch tapes. He unwarily put the
toothpick in a wrong page. Before going home, Ikuko’s husband asked if Kimura can develop the
pictures at his place. Kimura told to ask his landlord first.
February 28

11. Kimura told him that the place is ready.
March 3
Ikuko’s husband is doubtful whether to give the job of developing the pictures to Kimura. He thinks
whether it would only excite Kimura seeing the picture of her wife’s naked body or the possibility of
giving the pictures to Ikuko herself. He feels jealous about the idea but he still hands it to him.
March 7
Ikuko sees the key to his husband’s diary for the second time and was astounded to find it covered
with tapes. She opened it carefully and saw nude images of her pasted in some of the pages. She
immensely felt repugnant about it.
March 10
Ikuko’s tells about his declining sexual vigor and how Kimura and the brandy helped him overcome
this physical deficiency. He also notes about his eye problems and his becoming constantly forgetful.
March 14
Toshiko confronts Ikuko about seeing photos of her naked body in Kimura’s house. Ikuko defended
that she was only obeying what his father wants him to do and her duty as her wife.
March 18
Ikuko went with Toshiko and Kimura at Sekidencho. They had a brandy and again, after a couple of
shots, Ikuko felt dizzy and eventually fainted. Shortly after Toshiko’s call, Ikuko’s husband fled at
the place to bring Ikuko home.
March 19
Ikuko narrates about spending the day with Toshiko and Kimura-san. They had a brandy and again
Ikuko fainted at the bathroom. She made love with her husband while dreaming of seeing Kimura’s
naked body.
March 19
Ikuko’s husband reminisces the intercourse he had with his wife.
March 24
Toshiko arrives on taxi to tell her father that Ikuko has again fainted in the bathroom. She added
that she left Kimura and Ikuko at the cottage together for past-hour. He got her home and again
they made love but this time Ikuko was more intense and more passionate.
March 26
Kimura confesses all his knowledge about Ikuko’s husband’s scheme to satisfy his sexual cravings.
Ikuko opens up to him saying that their marriage was a result of opposing sexual desires. However

12. in her very mind, he was indeed grateful to him because he somehow spiced up their sexual
relationship.
March 28
Ikuko’s husband consulted a specialist and found out that a cerebral nerve is being clogged that is
why he has been experiencing being too much forgetful. He also reflected about how contributive did
Toshiko and Kimura was to realize his plans of getting Ikuko nailed for a real pleasurable
experience.
March 30
Ikuko went out with Toshiko and Kimura
March 31
Ikuko tells about her intercourse with her husband. She feels being signaled to read his husband’s
diary but she was very much persistent not to read it. On the other hand, her husband tells his
worsening condition. His blood pressure was unusually high and take plenty of rests.
April 1
Ikuko asked Toshiko to bring Mss Kawai to procure Westernized-style clothes. She felt secretly
embarrassed but she was persistent about it.
April 5
Ikuko’s husband tells that Ikuko has always been out. Toshiko replied that Kimura always go out as
well.
April 6
Ikuo tells about going out lately and meeting Kimura. She wanted Kimura’s body in bed and realized
that he was actually the one he has been dreaming for.
April 8
Ikuko’s husband sees Ikuko exiting the Westernized-style boutique. He followed him and stayed few
meters away from her back. He realized her natural beauty which is even more alluring by the
earring they saw.
April 10
Ikuko wonders whether her husband takes note about any health-related concerns. She reaffirmed
her guesses and knew that he was having a high blood pressure and a blurry eye-vision. She also
narrated that she had a TB tester.
April 13

13. Ikuko left after Toshiko arrived home. Toshiko told the whereabouts every time she is out. Ikuko’s
husband got angry and sent her home out of annoyance. He thought deeply if Ikuko has completely
surrendered herself to Kimura.
April 15
Ikuko’s husband tells about his deteriorating health. As he goes home, he sees that Ikuko is fitting a
Western-style cloth for the first time. She and Miss Kawai head out and bade him goodbye. As they
go along, Ikuko’s husband marveled at his wife’s beauty.
April 16
Ikuko tells that her husband hired a massage therapist who remedied his back pains. Shortly after,
she wore her Wester-style clothes and asked if her husband is leaving.
April 17
Ikuko narrates that her husband suddenly collapsed while having their intercourse.
April 18
Ikuko made an urgent aid before calling Dr. Kodama. When he arrived, he did several tests to check
him. Toshiko arrives with no apparent gesture of anxiousness or care for what has happened. After 9
hours, Ikuko’s husband regained consciousness but was hardly paralyzed.
April 19
Ikuko narrates about her husband saying an almost indiscernible word which she later figures out as
“Kimura”. He is continuously regaining strength. She has received a lot of flowers and gifts from
presumably his husband’s friends.
April 21
Ikuko narrates that her husband attempts that he wants to have an intercourse with her.
April 22
Ikuko tells that her husbvand needs to sleep longer. She suspects im of pretensing to be asleep that’s
why she’s giving him tablets of sedatives. She heard footsteps in the ground.
April 23
Ikuko narrates that hger husband wants to read her diary but she denied she has been keeping any.
His husband seems to be restless even with sedatives. At 11:00 PM, she heard footsteps in the
garden.
April 24

14. Ikuko goes out to Nishiki market upon Toshiko’s obstinate persuasion to go out and breathe a fresh
air. He calls Kimura for a few minutes and heads back. She thought about landing freely her diary to
her husband and to keep a separate volume to continue what she started. At 11 pm, she heard
footsteps in the garden.
April 25
Ikuko works with binding her diary. At 11, she heard footsteps in the garden.
April 28 and 29
At 11, Ikuko hears footsteps in the garden.
April 30
Dr. Kodama goes in at 1 pm.
May 1
Toshiko arrives and tells Ikuko to go out for a short while. Ikuko goes out to Sekidencho and met
Kimura. At 5 pm, she arrives home and sees that her husband is asleep. She binds her new diary
and keeps in her cabinet. However, she found out that Toshiko goes upstairs twice and goes back to
her father. She knew that Toshiko and her husband have already read the whole diary.
June 9
Ikuko narrates that her husband died on the 1st of May at 3:00 pm. She looked back on how their
marriage has gone and plans to compare his and her respective diaries. She tells that his husband is
far more honest than what she thought he ever is – even more truthful than her.
June 10
Ikuko reveals a stitch of events that happened from being put to a drinking binge to the consequent
events that happens prior to that. She confirms her own conjectures that her husband has all the
schemes planned in a thinking that it will work all the way. She also mentions about how Kimura
and Toshiko helped him indirectly to successfully plot his scheme.
June 11
Ikuko reverts back to some parts of their diaries where their illnesses both started to resurface. She
confessed that her suspected symptoms of acute tuberculosis turned out to be a mild case. What she
wrote after that is just a fabrication to say that she takes risks and so does her husband must. She
also revealed that she knows very well that her husband is near to collapse and the scene where his
husband caught out of breathe while they were having an intercourse is but a plan for her to nail
him on bed.

15. SUBJECT
The Key (Kagi in Japanese) in a shallow perspective tackles about sexual dissatisfaction and an
insatiable yearning for carnal pleasures. It talks about a Japanese couple who has been living an
awkwardly uncomfortable marriage life due to reasons of apparent resentments a term that can
as much be better interpreted by the word “incompatibility”. As the story unfolds, a profound
problem is seen as an underlying cause of the physical inabilities both party has seemingly been
lacking. Their married life is reflected with misunderstanding and lack of interpersonal
communication. They are barred by an internal sense of withdrawal to speak their minds and
kept silence root and grow between them. As they became engrossed with bodily pleasures,
they became confused of the demarcation between what is real love to that of a mere sexual
lust.
THESIS STATEMENT
The author tries to portray how seriously and often tragically may it become if conflicts serve as
the foundation of a married life. He tries to detail in the story that usual problems between
couples often become the sources of deleterious arguments; starts from deep within until
apathy dominates, of course, with both partners unconsciously knowing how and why until they
finally feel that they had actually fallen out of love. In the story, the author attempts to reveal
that a mutual sexual responsibility is an ingredient of a well-established family, something that
has become the main issue of the novel itself. Ironically, he also reaffirms that an inordinate
attitude towards sex is not also healthy but destructive.
STRUCTURAL STRATEGY
Tanizaki’s way of writing the novel is unique, creative and intelligent. First, telling the
story by presenting diaries is perhaps an unconventional yet refreshing way of developing the
characters and the plot itself. Conventional intelligence would tell us that most of the novels are
written in chapters and to think that the year when this was published was during the 1950’s
even show the ingenuity of Tanizaki (or much of the Japanese writers, in this light). On the other
hand, the use of diaries also made the characterization and the development of plot a battlefield
arena where the characters are revealed as a direct description from the character himself and
from the others. Because diaries are personal write-ups of daily experiences, there was barely an
instance where the feelings of a “third mind” (omniscient) is given a voice to hear. Moreover, the
conversational tone of the characters, where seemingly the ideas clash, gave a lively approach
where secretly, a “third mind” (the reader) is an all-knowing person who can claim whether the
characters’ conjectures are possible or not.

16. Clearly, the story is written in a direct, understandable and straight forward language.
The diaries of both couples presented events that went throughout the day and so any verbosity
or any form of symbolical representation is not present. It is told like a normal story of a day-to-
day life but the interconnection of the situations made it not a stale and boring plot.
CRITIC
Tanizaki’s The Key tackles about the married life problems and the inability of both
partners to commit a healthy relationship with each other. In the story, it seems that the main
cause of the couple’s problem is their sexual relationship. At the beginning of the story, the
husband jotted his dissatisfaction, his discontentment about how their married life has turned
into. The husband clearly rebels against the morally-reserved and stern attitude of his wife Ikuko
telling that she hated all the “sexual-interplay” that he does to stir her up. This leads him to a
secret plan with a goal of changing his wife’s excessive reticence to a more pervading attitude
especially when having sex.
Clearly, the husband’s goal was acceptable. Sexual relationship is one of the
considerations of a healthy married life where partners conjoin physically as a manifestation of
love and passion. However, the husband’s goal became an addiction leading to a perverse and
carnal aim to feel the ephemeral pleasure of sex. He noted that he loved Ikuko very much but as
his promiscuity worsens, a confusion between doing sex as a manifestation of love is blurred by
doing sex as a sign of pure lust. He knew very well that Ikuko was developing emotions for
Kimura but he simply ignored it telling that the jealousy that it brings dares him to become
bolder.
On the other hand, Ikuko was initially described as a reserved woman who is instilled
with strict morals and values of a typical Kyoto upbringing. As soon as she had her own diary,
she reveals about how she tremendously loved her husband and how she horribly hates him.
She hated the sight of his husband’s face especially when they are having sex where their bodies
touch inevitably. She also jotted down his resentments about detesting his husband’s way of
stirring her up like kissing her feet which she never imagined she could herself do.
When Ikuko is overpowered by the magic of brandy she had for the first time, she
experienced an overwhelming pleasure seething all over her body. By this, we observe that the
husband was successful in having an unbarred access to his wife’s body. This point is very critical
because finally, a silent agreement between the couples was made and for the first time, a
commitment to profess each other’s love is made. However, Ikuko was then falling for someone
else and that is Kimura. She dismissed the thought at once knowing that he was Toshiko’s

17. fiancé, but as Kimura becomes involved with the show that she and her husband have been up
to, her feelings profusely developed until she finally wished him in her own bed.
Ikuko’s disposition as a wife sparks a questionable claim as she becomes engrossed with
the carnal passion that her husband has conjured. At the first place, Ikuko could not be blamed
for she was only doing her duties as her husband’s behalf. However, her feelings towards Kimura
became uncontrolled. Her imaginings tripped over with reality once she knew that Kimura was
involved in his husband’s dirty little plan. When she finally satisfied her imaginations, she
realized that it was Kimura whom she loves and even if she still was satisfying her husbands’
carnal pleasures, she knew very well that the feeling was already “lust” not “love”.
The use of diary also reveals that mutual communication is clearly lacking between the
couples. It represents itself as a wall between a roof where seemingly emotions have been kept
lurking inside their unspoken hearts.