Tanizaki Junichiro (b. 1886). One of the largest bourgeois writers in Japan, a recognized artist of words. Tanizaki wrote a huge number of novels, novellas, and stories. Assessing one of his major post-war works - “The Cover of Snow”, published in England under the title “The Makioka Sisters” - the English journalist Irving Jaff writes that Tanizaki freed himself from the former influences on his work of Baudelaire, Poe and O. Wilde. This is not entirely accurate. Back in 1956, Tanizaki released the novel The Key, which suggests otherwise. It is no coincidence that one of the progressive Japanese critics, Sako D., wrote that this novel, due to its naturalistic details, simply cannot be read aloud anywhere. However, it should be noted that even Tanizaki himself can no longer be satisfied with “sitting in an ivory tower.” Speaking about his novel Snow Cover, he said that he wanted to limit the novel to “the attractive aspects of pre-war life, but still could not completely escape the storm that overwhelmed everyone.” The collection includes Tanizaki’s short story “The Moon and the Comedians,” which he wrote immediately after the war.