Diary of a mad old man
The last novel by one of the best-known Japanese writers, Junichiro Tanizaki who died in 1965 at the age of 79. youth he was strongly influenced by Poe, Baudelaire and Oscar Wilde, but after the earthquake of 1923 he moved to the gentler, more cultured Kyoto region and there became absorbed in the Japanese past and abandoned his superficial Westernization. By 1930 he had gained such recognition that his Complete works were published. as ever, and during this period he wrote of unusual sexual and psychological problems in The key (published in this country in 1961) and Diary of a mad old man. Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization. elected an Honorary Member of the American Academy and the National Institute of Arts and Letters in 1964.