Friday, March 25, 2011

「克子死ス 金田一氏ヲヨコセ」

「そう考えたとき、私は急になんともいえぬほど嬉しくなって来たものです。犯人は『密室の殺人』という問題を提出しt、われわれを挑戦して来ていえ るのだ。知恵の戦いをわれわれに挑んで来ているのだ。ようし、それじゃひとつその挑戦におうじようじゃないか。知恵の戦いを戦ってやろうじゃないか」
『本陣殺人事件』

"And when that came into my mind, I became unbelievably happy. The criminal gave us a locked room murder as a problem and challenged us! He challenged us with a battle of wits! Well, let's take this challenge then! Let us fight this battle of wits!"
"The Daimyou's Inn Murder Case"

When reading secondary literature and meta-fiction, you sometimes come across spoilers for detective novels. And while spoiling some plot-twists might be considered 'safe' in this time and age (is it possible to spoil... King Kong?), spoilers are usually marked and even an academic will usually first introduce the title of the work before going into the spoiler-danger portion of his story. So a reader has the choice of reading the spoiler, or not. With detective novels, a lot of the fun derives from the fact you have to deduce the facts yourself, so spoilers are usually avoided.

Unless, of course, you don't actually think you'll ever read the book anyway and thus don't really care about a solution being spoiled. So when I many, many moons ago read a detailed summary of Yokomizo Seishi's masterpiece Honjin Satsujin Jiken ("The Daimyou's Inn Murder Case"), with no prospects of a translation in a language I could read, I didn't really care about the spoiler. Who would've guessed I'd do another bachelor course after the first one, this time in Japanese studies, resulting in a new-and-improved me who is actually able to read the novel in Japanese?

Yokomizo Seishi was a detective writer with quite some similarities with Edogawa Rampo. In the pre-war (WWII) period, both writers started out as orthodox detective writers, only to change to un-orthodox detective stories, as these were the norm in pre-war Japan. Following the Second World War (during which the publication of detective novels was forbidden), both writers returned to the orthodox detective novel. Edogawa Rampo poured his energies in essays and criticism, while Yokomizo Seishi finally wrote the orthodox detective novels he always wanted to write.

He published two novels in 1946, of which the more famous one is Honjin Satsujin Jiken. The novel is commonly seen as the first Japanese orthodox (authentic) Golden Age-style detective novel. A symbol of the change between the pre-war un-orthodox novels and post-war orthodox novels. It plays a big role in influential critic/writer Kasai Kiyoshi's orthodox detective theory (on which I'll someday, someday will write something. But not now). It's also considered a very Japanese novel, a novel only a Japanese, living in a Japanese setting could have written.

But most importantly, for me, it's a great detective novel. Not even knowing the solution already could spoil this experience. I'm not going to say anything new in a historical context about this book, so I'll just rave about this novel.

While the novel is called Honjin Satsujin Jiken ("The Daimyou's Inn Murder Case"), it's not set in a honjin. Which is an officially appointed inn for daimyo to stay in while traveling (because of sankin koutai.) during the Edo period. But the Ichiyanagi family did run a honjin during the Edo period and while the family have moved away from their original location since then, the Ichiyanagi family is still a wealthy and influential family in 1937, nowadays living in a big mansion (complete with annex) in rural Okayama. While the class-structure has been abolished for many years now, the villagers are still looking up to the marriage of the eldest son of the Ichiyanagi family, Kenzou, as though they were peasants to their lord. But tragedy strikes! The night of the marriage a scream and the eerie sound of a koto being played is heard at the Ichiyanagi mansion and when members of the family go take a look at the annex where Kenzou and his new wife Katsuko are staying, they find the married couple dead, slayed by a sword. But how could have the murderer have escaped? The sliding doors of the annex were all fastened from the inside and what's more, there were no footprints in the snow around the annex! The only clues left are some bloody fingerprints of somebody with only three fingers... Genzou, the uncle of Katsuko sends out a telegram asking his wife to send his protogé Kindaichi Kousuke to him.

Yes, Honjin Satsujin Jiken is the first novel to feature famous detective Kindaichi Kousuke. As this novel is set before the war (all the other Kindaichi novels are actually set after the war), Kindaichi is here still a young, bright boy (though he has been to America by now, and was addicted to drugs for a while too), but his trademark long hair, his out-dated clothes and his stuttering are all there. And he is as bright as always. He solves the locked room murder through sheer logic and it's no wonder this book set off such a boom in orthodox detective novels (and Kindaichi fans!).

Yokomizo's also a genius in creating atmosphere.  The creepy sound of a koto in the night, a ghost from the past (the man with three fingers), the small rural (Okayama) village setting, head and branch families, the upper/lower classes, the occasional use of dialects, elements that are unmistakenly deeply connected with the Kindaichi Kousuke novels were all introduced in this novel. The war, a theme that plays a big role in the background in many of the Kindaichi novels is not as visible, as it's set in before the war, but in return, the focus shifts a bit more to class differences, something also decidedly present in the Kindaichi novels (though not as 'visible' as the war).

Strangely enough though, this book seems to be parodied not as much as other Kindaichi classics like Gokumontou ("Prison Gate Island"), Inugamike no Ichizoku ("The Inugami Family") and (of course) Yatsu Haka Mura ("Eight Graves Village"). Even though it has its own set of memorable scenes like the koto, the dead cat body and the three fingered man!

The solution of the novel is a very memorable one, ingenious enough to be called a classic, though it is a bit hindered by its complexity. While not as improbable as The Chinese Orange Mystery, it's still a very complex one with many factors to consider, but the way the locked room is a) set and b) how it's made possible, makes this one of the Grand Titles in Japanese detective history, a must-read for anyone interested in how in the genre has developed in Japan. It's also much more satisfying than Edogawa Rampo's D-Zaka no Satsujin ("The Murder at D-Slope"), Japan's first locked 'room' murder mystery.

The novel feels very much as meta-fiction too. Yokomizo longed to write a detective novel during the war, having spent much time reading them and he makes many references to the authors who have inspired him. In the first chapter, for example, he mentions Leroux' Le Mystère de la Chambre Jaune, LeBlanc's Les dents du tigre, S.S. Van Dine's The Canary Murder Case and The Kennel Murder Case, Carr's The Plague Court Murders and Scarlett's Murder Among the Angells, while halfway the novel, Kindaichi Kousuke and third son of the Ichiyanagi family, Saburou, talk about the workings of locked room murders and in the end, the author pats himself on the shoulder gloating about how his carefully chosen words were a hint on their own.

I don't read Kindaichi novels often, as they take some time (though this one was surprisingly easy, taking only three days), but actually own many of them and every time I do read them, I can only rave about how awesome they are. I really, really should read more.

But then again, I say that also about Edogawa Rampo, Norizuki Rintarou, Ayatsuji Yukito, Shimada Souji, Arisugawa Arisu, Nikaidou Reito, Maya Yutaka, American/English writers, secondary literature...

Original Japanese title(s): 横溝正史、『本陣殺人事件』

13 comments :

  1. I recently skimmed through this where 本陣殺人事件 was ranked as the best locked room followed by novels like Ayukawa's 赤い密室, Leroux's mystere de la chambre jaune, Carr's Three Coffins, Judas Window and Third Bullet and Shimada's second novel you also reviewed here.

    This book is recommendable in general as it also features stuff like a discussion between Arisugawa and Nikaidou on why locked rooms fascinate people so much.

    I definitely have to read some Yokomizo... but the Japanese is the reason I only know 犬神家の一族's film adaption so far. Maybe I should just watch 本陣's movie as well... I don't know when I'll be able to read the original anyway >_>

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  2. O_o Now I just want to read that mook because Takumi Shuu (Gyakuten Saiban, Ghost Trick) wrote an essay! MUST BUY.

    ・21世紀型密室の発展型 ビデオゲームと密室ミステリー(巧舟)

    But I can definately understand why someone would choose 本陣 as the best locked room. It's really a memorable one and looking at it from the Japanese viewpoint, it really symbolizes an important shift from 変格 to original Japanese 本格ミステリー.

    Yokomizo Seishi's Japanese is actually not super difficult. Especially 本陣殺人事件 was very easy to read and not too long either (140 pages in double columns). It's just more exposition than dialogue (compared to modern writers, or even contemporary Matsumoto Seichou) and dialects can be a bit hard to understand at times (not in 本陣 though, it's very, very light there).

    (I have a bit more trouble getting through 獄門島 though, which _also_ features random Matsuo Bashou quotations...)

    As your Japanese is quite high-level, I assume from the books you read/the amount (JLPT 1?), I think that at least the Japanese shouldn't be an excuse for not reading Yokomizo :P

    And 市川崑's 犬神家の一族 has to be one of my favorite movies of all time. The original at least, I haven't seen the remake yet, though looking at the trailer, that seems to be a 1:1 remake...

    There are several 本陣殺人事件 movies/TV specials, of which only the TV serial starring 古谷一行 as Kindaichi seems interesting to me. Not too sure about the '47 movie, and the '75 seems to be a contemporary remake. I was actually quite surprised when I found out they didn't make a 本陣 special with the recent Kindaichi TV special series starring SMAP's Inagaki (even though they show his time in America/his first case, addressed in 本陣) in an original story stuck to the 犬神家の一族 special).

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  3. After reading your review, I can only curse the Western publishing world for their lack of interest in Japanese detective stories, and only churn out trash thriller with so called social relevance – which makes them horribly dated and unreadable before it's even a decade old.

    I'm afraid we'll have to take another look at that mystery slumber party, where you'll be translating mysteries as bedtime stories... all night long. ;D

    By the way, interesting fact that Japan banned detectives during the war, just like the fascists did in Italy. This is intriguing, not only because the genre was in its second biggest boom period at the time, but also because they were a significant part of the Armed Services Edition (a line of little, oblong shaped books that were freely distributed among the troops by the government). I'll be reviewing one of those editions in the near future.

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  4. Of course, the only way to generate interest in Japanese detectives, in a genre-savvy way, is to have exactly such a murder happen. Ya know, with mutilated corpses hanging up-side down from a tree with a katana lying around and a koto playing in the background in a locked room, following a local legend about fallen samurai. In Europe. Then it would be social relevant!

    I see some hurdles in this plan though.

    About the censoring, detectives were all out in Japan, I think the best they could do was patriotic spy stories. The 1994 movie Rampo goes into it a bit (being a movie about Edogawa Rampo), while Mitani Kouki's (Furuhata Ninzaburou) University of Laughs (Warai no Daigaku) is a hilarious movie about government censoring in WWII Japan in general.

    I'm pretty sure Kawana writes about the ban in Murder Most Modern: Detective Fiction & Japanese Culture, but it has been about two years since I last read that one...

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  5. Where you see hurdles, I see challenges.

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  6. Yeah that mook thingy is awesome in general really, even if it was only for the questionnaire Arisugawa sent to all those authors mentioned on the cover. The answers are laid out at rhe end but they also occasionally pop up in that locked room ranking at the beginning and as you already mentioned there is also stuff about movies, manga and games so it's very encompassing.

    140 double columns? OK I expected more, I guess I'll give it a try then once I got my hands on it.

    I passed JLPT2 and I might try Level 1 this summer or winter. I don't think my Japanese is equal to yours though since I did not even go abroad for a year. Although that might not add that much to reading experience.

    Yes the original 犬神家 movie is awesome, I also haven't seen the remake yet but basically it really seems like the same movie in contemporary quality, so I wonder whether one gains anything by watching it when you already know the original.

    I could watch the '75 movie of 本陣 but you might have convinced me of reading the novel...

    Yes, Kawana Sari writes about pretty much everything concerning that time and while I do admit that those works are essential and fundamental there definitely should be English secondary literature on the revival movement as well... and of course more translations of relevant contemporary novels for that matter >_>

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  7. What's available in English anyway? I have a
    translated interview with Kasai somewhere, as well as a (doctor's degree? I think) thesis on Japanese detective fiction by Satomi Saito for the University of Iowa on Japanese detective fiction, also delving into shinhonkaku, but I can't seem to remember much more than that... Though to be honest, I haven't looked for English papers in...1, 2 years now? =_=

    I don't think you would have too much trouble with N1; if you're able to read books at a steady rate/read academic papers, 読解 really shouldn't pose any problems. Leaving only 聴解 and 語彙・文法.

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  8. I don't think there's any more than that. I didn't even know there was an interview with Kasai in English... I only know of Kawana's Murder Most Modern and Mark Silvers's "Purloined Letters: Cultural Borrowing and Japanese Crime Literature, 1868-1937" and I did not even take a look in the latter one so far.

    I passed N2 with almost 80% without learning at all, so if I actually do something for it I might pass N1... 読解 already wasn't a problem in N2, as was 聴解 but I wonder about that for N1 after listening to all those news recently...
    Well, applying does not cost you anything... Oh wait, it does >_>

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  9. I completely forgot about this website, but watching you two go back and forth brought it back to the surface of my mind. It's a page created by a professor who's a devotee of the detective story and wrote several short pieces on how the genre stands in different parts of the word – including Japan!

    It perhaps lack the depth to be really of interest to either of you, but perhaps it's stimulating to get someone else's point of view on the subject.

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  10. ^ Heh, actually one of the first sites I ever visited on the topic! I never did get those Natsuki books...

    Concerning English secondary literature on Japanese detective fiction and authors, this is (I think all) what I have as digital or hard-copy. Most, but not all, are academic.

    Chino, Noriko (2008). ‘Miyabe Miyuki’s Place in The Development of Japanese Mystery Fiction’. Dissertation (The Ohio State University)

    Copeland, Rebecca (2004). ’Woman uncovered: pornography and power in the detective fiction of Kirino Natsuo'. Japan Forum, 16:2,249 — 269

    Gonda, Manji (1993). ‘Crime Fiction with a Social Conciousness’. Japan Quarterly, 40:2, 157-164

    Igarashi, Yoshikuni (2005). ‘Edogawa Rampo and the Excess of Vision: An Ocular Critique of Modernity in 1920s Japan’. Positions, 13:2, 299-237.

    Jacobowitz, Seth (2008). Transltor’s (sic) Introduction. In: The Edogawa Rampo Reader. Fukuoka: Kurodahan press (xv-xlviii)

    Kawana, Sari (2004). 'The price of pulp: women, detective fiction, and the profession of writing in inter-war Japan'. Japan Forum, 16:2,207 — 229

    Kawana, Sari (2005). ‘Mad Scientists and Their Prey: Bioethics, Murder and Fiction in Interwar Japan’. Journal of Japanese Studies, 31:1, 89-120

    Kawana, Sari (2007) ‘With rhyme and reason: Yokomizo Seishi’s postwar murder mysteries’. Comparative Literature Studies, 44:1-2, 118-143.

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  11. Looser, Thomas (2002). ‘From Edogawa to Miyazaki: Cinematic and anime-ic architectures of early and late twentieth-century Japan’. Japan Forum, 14:2, 297-328.

    MacDonald, Ian (2007). Introduction. In: The curious casebook of Inspector Hanshichi. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press (xiii – xxxvii)

    Mori, Maryellen T. (2000). ‘Three Tales of Doll-Love by Edogaawa Rampo’. Japan Review, 12, 231-246.

    McCaffery, Larry; Gregory, Sinda; Tatsumi, Takayuki. ‘A Meaning in Art That’s No Longer Possible: An Interview with Kiyoshi Kasai’. Review of Contemporary Fiction 22:2, 53-74

    Mikals-Adachi, Eileen B.(2004). 'Nonami Asa's family mysteries: the novel as social commentary'. Japan Forum,16:2,231 — 248

    Miyata, Shipachiro (1959). ‘Mystery Makes Good’. Japan Quarterly, 6:4 509-513

    Nakajima, Kawataro (1962).‘Detective Fiction in Japan. Japan Quarterly, 9: 1, 50-56

    Omori, Kyoko (2003). ‘Detecting Japanese Vernacular Modernism: Shinseinen Magazine and the Development of the Tantei Shosetsu Genre, 1920-1931. Dissertation (The Ohio State University)

    Reichert, Jim (2001). ‘Deviance and Social Darwinism in Edogawa Ranpo’s Erotique-Grotesque Thriller “Kotō no Oni”’. Journal of Japanese Studies, 27:1, 113-141

    Saito, Satomi. ‘Culture and Authencity: The Discursive Space of Japanese Detective Fiction and the Formation of the National Imaginary’. Thesis (University of Iowa).

    Sakai, Cecil (1987). Histoire de la Litterature Populaire Japanoise – Faits et perspectives 1900-1980. Paris: L'Harmattan.

    Schreiber, Mark (2006). ‘Introduction’ in: The Black Lizard and Beast in the Shadows. Fukuoka: Kurodohan Press.

    Seaman, Amanda C. (2004). Bodies of Evidence: Women, Society, and Detective Fiction in 1990s Japan. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press.

    Seaman, Amanda C.(2004) 'Cherchez la femme: detective fiction, women, and Japan'. Japan Forum, 16:2,185 — 190

    Seaman, Amanda C. (2004). There Goes the Neighbourhood: Community and Family in Miyabe Miyuki's Riyu’ Japan Forum, 16:2, 271-287.

    Seaman, Amanda C. (2006) ‘Inside OUT: Space, Gender, and Power in Kirino Natsuo’ Japanese Language and Literature, 40:2, 197-217

    Silver, Mark (2004) 'The detective novel's novelty: native and foreign narrative forms in Kuroiwa Ruikō's Kettō no hate'. Japan Forum, 16:2,191 — 205

    Silver, Mark (2008) . Purloined Letters – Cultural Borrowing and Japanese Crime Literature. United States of America: University of Hawai'i Press.

    Silver, Mark; Herbert, Rosemary (2000). ‘Crime and mystery writing in Japan’ In: The Oxford Companion to Crime and Mystery Writing (Rosemary Herbert, ed.) 241-43 (can be accessed at http://www.jrank.org/literature/pages/6695/Japan-Crime-Mystery-Writing-In.html)

    Tatsumi, Takayuki (2008). ‘Prescriptions for Rampomania’. In: The Edogawa Rampo Reader. Fukuoka: Kurodahan Press (vii-xiv)

    Yoshida, Kazuo (1989). ‘Japanese Mystery Literature’ in Handbook of Japanese Popular Culture, ed. Richard Gid Powers and Hidetoshi Kato. New York: Greenwood Press (275-299)

    Haven't read everything yet though. Additions are always welcome :D

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  12. Can I implore you to spoil me the mystery and the solution? The book is not available in English, despite my best efforts to search for it and I cannot read Japanese?

    You do know you can hide spoilers by hiding it behind a different colour for the font or behind a black bars?

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    Replies
    1. The details of the locked room mystery are already in the review and as for the solution, I think this video should explain enough, even if you don't know Japanese: https://youtu.be/HehDoP_aA8I?t=1h10m9s (it's one of TV adaptation of the book)

      (I can't guarantee this video will stay online forever, obviously)

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