The novel “The Key” is the most famous work of Junichiro Tanizaki, one of the pillars of Japanese literature of the 20th century. In this novel, set in Kyoto, two diaries—two voices, a husband and a wife—tempt, confront, entrap. With sophisticated psychologism, the author draws a complex mosaic of feelings, a whimsical change of mood, and ambiguous symbolism of the relationship between a man and a woman. The novel was twice filmed: by the Japanese director Kon Ichikawa (a prize at the Cannes International Film Festival, 1960) and, in a free interpretation, by Tinto Brass (1983).