Tinker, Tailor, Liar, Thief

There open fanes and gaping graves

Yawn level with the luminous waves; 

But not the riches there that lie 

In each idol’s diamond eye— 

Not the gaily-jewelled dead 

Tempt the waters from their bed; 

"The City in the Sea"

I'm pretty sure this series is the one I have read the fastest on this blog, starting in 2018 and averaging about two books a year now.

Toujou Genya series
1) Majimono no Gotoki Tsuku Mono ("Those Who Bewitch Like The Evil Spirits", 2006)
2) Magatori no Gotoki Imu Mono ("Those Who Are A Taboo Like The Malicious Bird", 2006)
3) Kubinashi no Gotoki Tataru Mono ("Those Who Cast A Curse Like The Headless", 2007) 
4) Yamanma no Gotoki Warau Mono ("Those Who Sneer Like The Mountain Fiend", 2008)
5) Himemuro no Gotoki Komoru Mono ("Those Who Stay Inside Like A Sealed Room", 2009)
6) Mizuchi no Gotoki Shizumu Mono ("Those Who Submerge Like The Water Spirit" 2009). 
7) Ikidama no Gotoki Daburu Mono ("Those Who Turn Double Like The Eidola", 2011)
8) Yuujo no Gotoki Uramu Mono ("Those Who Resent Like The Ghostly Courtesan", 2012)
9) Haedama no Gotoki Matsuru Mono ("Those Who Are Deified Like The Haedama", 2018)

10) Maguu no Gotoki Motarasu Mono ("Those Who Bring Forth Like the Demon Idol", 2019) 

11) Ina no Gotoki Nieru Mono (2021)

Toujou Genya, created by Mitsuda Shinzou, is a horror mystery novelist in post-war Japan who also travels across the country to gather ghost stories and document local religions and their ceremonies, as he is also a gifted amateur folklorist. His interest in local religions however often also get him involved in baffling murder cases that more often than not, occur during unique religious ceremonies in small, isolated communities, but it's Genya's free-style thinking that always allows him to solve him these creepy and complex cases, even if it also involves him voicing out loud a lot of wrong theories first before he arrives at the correct one. At the moment I am writing this post, there have been eight novels released in this series, and I have reviewed the first seven of them, as the most recent one hasn't been released in pocket form yet. There is however also a secondary series of short story collections: these stories are prequels and set in Genya's student days, but are also about creepy crimes involving folklore. After Himemuro no Gotoki Komoru Mono (2009) and Ikidama no Gotoki Daburu Mono (2011) however followed the third short story collection Maguu no Gotoki Motarasu Mono ("Those Who Bring Forth Like The Demon Idol") in 2019, which got a pocket release in 2022. This book is set slightly later than the previous two volumes, as Toujou Genya has now made his professional debut as a horror novelist and also has started making a name among police officials as a gifted amateur detective, and much to Genya's annoyance, some police detectives even seek him out for help on baffling murder cases even though he doesn't consider himself an amateur detective. Fortunately for the police detectives however they know exactly how to lure Genya in, as he can't help himself whenever he hears some kind of ghostly folklore tale is involved. The 2022 pocket release also adds one extra story not found in the original 2019 release, but considering the way it's visibly "set seperately" in the table of contents and the specific themes of that story, I'm not sure it's considered "canon" but more on that later.

The opening story Youfuku no Gotoki Kiru Mono ("Those Who Cut Like The Bewitched Clothes") is weirdly enough a perfectly fine mystery story and works well as an opener, but it's not really a good Toujou Genya story, in the sense the "horror" element of the story is basically not vital at all. There's some talk about a "bewitched jacket" but it's not really important to the case. Genya is asked to look into a double murder case of two wealthy brothers, who lived on the same sloping street, but one at the top and one below, with two sizeable houses between their houses. The two elderly brothers were a bit strange and hard on their own sons, and weirdly enough, the two ended up liking their respective nephews better, and with time, the two nephews started living with their uncles, as their own fathers always preferred the nephew thinking they were better than their own sons. But now both are murdered, and the police suspect the two cousins swapped murders, killing their uncles, so they'd inherit from their respective fathers.The brother living in the upper house was discovered to be murdered with the same knife that killed the brother living down the slope around the same time, but the problem is this is impossible, as the knife couldn't have been brought to the upper house where it was found: the housemaid of the lower house left her master and his nephew in the afternoon and went up the slope to bring the neighborhood bulletin board to the neighbours up the slope and swears she never saw the nephew overtake her on the street to take the knife "up", a fact collaborated by other witnesses, and in fact, this nephew has an alibi as he left after the housemaid did to go to a bookshop he frequents. What follows is a howdunnit story about how the knife could have been brought unseen from the house below to the house up the slope, and considering the short length of this story, it's actually quite good, as we get multiple false solutions, and a convincing final solution that is well clewed. Tone-wise, it does remind me of an earlier Genya short story, and another Rampo-themed story Mitsuda wrote, but I think this is a great opening. But really, the "horror" aspect in this story feels out of place, or at least unnecessary.

Fushi no Gotoki Yomigaeru Mono ("Those Who Revive Like the Death Honorer") has Genya being asked by Fushimi Fujiko to look into the disappearance of her brother Fujio. The two of them hail from the town of Fushiori, located at the foot of a mountain and their family has been the leading family in that town for generations, doing business in fabrics. During the war, their oldest brother died, and while Fujio made it back to Japan alive after the war, the tragedy had a tremendous effect on his mind. For a while, his parents let him be, hoping he would recover and prepare to become the future family head, but Fujio started his own little community of "social misfits" just outside Fushiori, near the mountain forest. What started out very small, became a small and isolated community, fenced off and not allowing outsiders to look inside. Eventually, Fujio even started getting obsessed with the idea of life and death, and basically became a kind of cult leader, who believed he could resurrect even if he would die. This drove off most of the people in the community, but with him remained five women, who each were given a "trial": one wasn't allowed to see and blindfolded, one wasn't allowed to hear so had earplugs, etc. However, the woman who joined the community last had a fugitive brother, and the police suspected he had gone to his sister to hide, so they watched the fenced-up community for days. Eventually, they caught the fugitive, but when the police entered the community, they were somewhat susprised to learn Fujio had disappeared, even though they had been watching the community all that time. But as they caught the criminal and Fujio was an adult who could go where ever he wants, they couldn't do anything now, which is why his sister Fujiko wants Genya to solve this impossible disappearance. The opening story didn't make very good use of the religious and folklore themes that feature so heavily in this series, but this one is absolutely perfect in that regards. It's a fairly short story, but the small cult that is presented here feels quite convincing, and the way each of the women has one of their senses "shut off" leads to a very interesting puzzle where you wonder how Fujio could've disappeared. The solution is absolutely fantastic, one of the most memorable solutions I have read in recent years and while a bit crazy, it works perfectly in this story because the build-up is very convincing. My favorite of the collection.

Kemonoya No Gotoki Suu Mono ("Those Who Suck Like The House of Beasts") is very hard to explain without giving away too much. It is about Genya reading two different accounts that involve a building that sound a lot like each other, a house hidden away deep in the mountains with creepy statues of fantastical beasts inside and Genya using those accounts to arrive at a certain conclusion: I like the idea of the house a lot, but I have the idea this story as it is now works better as a horror story than a mystery story, a lot of the background story should have been worked out more to bring a better, deeper mystery story, but I think it's left a bit vague on purpose to emphasize the horror aspects. Again, I like the core idea as a mystery story too, but I feel it leans a bit to the horror side.

The title story Maguu no Gotoki Motarasu Mono ("Those Who Bring Forth Like The Demon Idol") is by far the longest story in the collection, but sadly enough also the one I like least, for a large part because it's so long, even though not a lot happens in the story, making it feel very drawn out. By this time, Genya has become a fairly well-known writer among those in the industry, and he is finally contacted for the first time by Sofue Shino, editor at Kaisousha and Genya's usual sidekick in the novels. Genya is made aware of the Maguu, a statuette that is supposed to bring fortune, but also calamity to its owner. It is actually the property of a local collector, who has a swastika-shaped gallery in his garden where he keeps all his valuable antiques: each of the four "arms" is a different gallery with its own garden entrance, and they all come together at the center of the swastika. Genya is brought along to visit the collector, who is entertaining some other guests too and while Genya and the collector talk very enthusiastically about all kinds of things, the others all take a look in the gallery, but eventually, one of the visitors is found dead in the middle hall of the gallery, and the four people in the gallery who each came from a different entrance all swear they aren't the killer. The idea of a swastika-shaped building is interesting and I like the idea of having multiple false solutions based on the known facts, but a lot of the mystery is a bit "loose", as they just depend on testimonies of people saying "I was about here in the north/west/south/east gallery when I heard a noise" and it's ultimately not a very alluring mystery. The solution has some clever clues and all, but I feel like it isn't even used to its full potential in this particular story, because there's not very much synergy between the murder in the swastika-shaped building and the specific trick used in this story. That coupled with the length of the story made this my least favorite of the collection, despite it being the title story.

The bonus story Inin no Gotoki Suwaru Mono ("Those Who Sit Like the Human Chair") is as the title suggest actually an Edogawa Rampo-inspired story, not very surprising as Mitsuda actually has another series that features Rampo-inspired mystery stories and 'almost' pastiches. It's a fairly short story and involves Genya visiting a local chair workshop, but the attentive reader will of course realize how it's all inspired by Rampo's famous horror short story The Human Chair. Eventually, someone is found dead in the workshop, but I think if you already know The Human Chair, it's likely you'll start thinking in certain directions and eventually arrive at the solution. I think it's a fun extra story, but it feels a bit "weird" as a Rampo-homage story within the Genya universe, which is probably the reason why it's put in a seperate space in the table of contents.

Overall, I'm a bit a bit divided on Maguu no Gotoki Motarasu Mono I think. I think the first two stories are great, and while the rest of the volume is never anything near bad, I do think the latter three stories are not as good as the first half. But save for the second story, you don't really get a good feel for what usually makes for a good Toujou Genya story. Sure, these short stories can never reach the sheer brilliance of the novels, because the way they mix horror with complex mystery plots that build in unique religious ideas really does require an extended page length, but I feel most of the stories in the previous two short story collection still managed to do better in general, each of them having more stories that are similar to the second story in this collection, rather than just that single one. So I wouldn't recommend this as an entry point into the Toujou Genya series, nor as an entry point into the short stories of this series. It's not bad, and at times really good even, but I think practically all previous books are just more consistent in bringing the Toujou Genya experience.

Original Japanese title(s): 三津田信三『魔偶の如き齎すもの』:「妖服の如き切るもの」/巫死の如き甦るもの」/「 獣家の如き吸うもの」/「魔偶の如き齎すもの」/「椅人の如き座るもの」