A Figure in Hiding

"It's alive, it's moving, it's alive, it's alive, it's alive, it's alive, IT'S ALIVE!"

"Frankenstein"

I have seen a real Japanese karakuri puppet/automaton up close once at an exhibition here. They look really cool, especially as the mechanisms are mostly hidden from sight. It was pretty funny to see the automaton placed next to a Pepper too.

Tokyo Ad Planning Service (TAPS) is in charge of the marketing campaign of an upcoming exhibition on Japanese automata (karakuri puppets), which is why Sawako of TAPS finds herself working with Yamato Haruka, a famous British-Japanese visual designer whose real name is actually Yamato Harker. Yamato gladly takes the job to design some posters for the exhibition, but as he knows very little about Japanese automata, Sawako arranges for them to meet with Professor Kagura, an expert on Japanese automata. Yuria, the professor's assistant and adopted daughter, decides to bring Sawako and Yamato to a temple in Shinjuku with an automatic fountain designed by Benkichi, the famous nineteenth century inventor and karakuri puppet creator. Yuria's brother Romao plays in the rock band Android and also happens to be holding a concert at the temple that evening. Yamata and Sawako are also invited to the afterparty of the concert, where they meet Romao, his girlfriend Kiriko, her wealthy father Kashima Daiji and Daiji's mistress Ukita Mihiro, a well-known actress. Being an automaton collector himself, Daiji invites Sawako and Yamato to his home to view some pieces, but when they try out the automaton that can write on a piece of paper, they find that the paper says "Benkichi Won't Allow That". The bad prank seems to have some effect on Daiji, even though the other people present can't imagine what the message could ever mean. When however Kiriko later dies in a traffic accident which apparently wasn't just an accident and another threatening surfaces which mentions a Automaton House, Yamato decides to put on his amateur-detective cap on and investigate the case thoroughly in Takahashi Katsuhiko's Karakurikan no Satsujin ("The Automaton House Murders, 1990).

While his The Case of the Sharaku Murders is available in English, I do believe this is the very first time I picked up a book by Takahashi Katsuhiko. The title however did already give me an idea of what I could expect from this book: ever since The Decagon House Murders, there've been countless of mystery novels that follow the exact same[something]-kan no satsujin title pattern and all similarly feature stories set in unique buildings as the backdrop for the murder mystery plot. Some play the trope very straight, like Atsukawa Tatsumi's Gurenkan no Satsujin, others are a bit more tongue-in-cheek, like the novels in Aosaki Yuugo's Urazome Tenma series, which are not set in curiously designed manors or country houses, but public buildings like a library and a gymnasium. Still, the books that follow this title pattern usually do have a lot in common, being that the stories are often closed circle murder mysteries, set in the cramped space of one confined location that has a very specific theme (often reflected in the architecture/layout/interior), with the backstory or architecture of the specific location often playing a significant role in the actual mystery plot. Given that Karakurikan no Satsujin was named after the famous Japanese automata, I was looking forward to a plot that'd make use of these primitive robots.

And I was let down hard. Because very few of the things you'd expect based on the title alone come true in this novel. To give the most obvious example: while the titular Automaton House is mentioned briefly in the prologue, the main narrative doesn't arrive at the actual location until three-quarters into the book.  So no closed circle murder mystery plot here, no creepy scenes of a house filled with automata that might've committed the murders, none of that. Instead, the novel takes a long time to set-up the late visit to the Automaton House, with an investigation that isn't that interesting to be honest. For while the death of Kiriko occurs relatively soon in the novel, as do the threatening notes signed by Benkichi, the plot seems mostly concerned with speculation that is ultimetely based on very little hard information, so the first three-quarters of the plot just feel too vague. Kiriko's death isn't even a clear murder, but perhaps just an unlucky accident, and while Yamato and Sawako (and the motley crew made up by Yamato's local friends) do speculate a lot about her death and the tie it has to the threatening letters to her father, there's just too little to really keep the reader engaged with the plot at this point: there might be a murder, but there might also not be, and while the hypotheses Yamato and Sawako have regarding Daiji and why's afraid of the name Benkichi are interesting, these discussions are based on so little it's basically pure imagination, which tends to be bad plot fuel in a detective plot.

By the time we do get to the Automaton House (which is named so because of its exterior appearance), there's just so little time left we barely get to see it, and it never really manages to make an impression. Even a late murder does little to really get the plot going, and by the time you're done with the book, it just feels too little happened that allowed the detectives to really do anything of significance. A lot of what they end up doing is based on nearly baseless speculation and when the dust has settled and everything is explained, it still feels like a) the presence of the detectives amounted to nothing and b) ultimately, the plot feels slightly arbitrary, because the solution revolves mainly about the motive of the murderer, but that's only mentioned in the very end, so it kinda feels like anyone could've been the murderer if the author had made up a motive for them. There's no real moment during the last act where it all clicks in hindsight, which is usually what makes a mystery novel work.

There's a lot of historical context mentioned in this novel regarding Benkichi and his business partner Zeniya Gohei, which is certainly interesting. As a mystery novel with a historical subplot, Karakurikan no Satsujin touches upon a theme that's pretty interesting for Japanese readers, as the idea of automatoa and primitive robots has a lot in common with concepts of trick art, secret hallways and doors like you see in a lot of other mystery fiction that follow the aforementioned title pattern and it's quite fun to learn more about the history of automata in Japan. The story does focus more on Benkichi and Zeniya as actual historical persons and their personal lifes, rather than their creations: sadly enough this book isn't about some killer automaton created centuries ago or something like that. Personally, I would have preferred to have seen the Japanese automata themselves featured more prominently in the plot, not the historical context surrounding them, but for those with an interest in history, this book definitely has something to offer. If you're familiar with the (fictional) historical person Kichiemon from Detective Conan, you probably have an idea of what kind of person Benkichi was and what he worked on.

Karakurikan no Satsujin wasn't quite my cup-of-tea-made-by-an-automaton: while the historical context of automata and Benkichi is interesting, the core murder plot itself feels a bit empty, and while a lot of the historical exposition is captivating, you sometimes just wonder why it's mentioned at that moment because now the characters aren't even theorizing or making hypotheses, they're purely imagining things, which makes this mini-lectures feel rather forced at times. Holding my expectations based solely on the title against this book isn't fair either of course, but even setting those thoughts aside, I think Karakurikan no Satsujin's plot doesn't quite match the potential of the automaton theme.

Original Japanese title(s): 高橋克彦『偶人館の殺人』