The Voice in the Dark

I can open your eyes 

Take you wonder by wonder

"A Whole New World" (Brad Kane, Lea Salonga)

I think I have mentioned it before when discussing historical mysteries here, but I am not particularly strong in the subject of history. And I am even worse when it comes to details in history. However, ever since I was young, I was always interested in myths like the mythology of the ancient Greeks and the Romans, and also unsolved historical riddles and/or hidden meanings behind historical events etc. I loved watching documentaries talking about the "truth" behind topics like the pyramids, Stonehenge and Atlantis, or reading about interpretations of myths and folktales and learning what they (presumably) were really about. Of course, you can easily see the overlap with my love for mystery fiction here, a genre that is often about the appearance of "a story" (the apparent happenings of a crime) and a hidden truth behind that appearance. 

It is a reason why I really liked Kujira Touichirou's Yamataikoku wa Doko Desuka? ("Where is Yamatai-koku?" 1998) when I read it two years ago: it was a short story collection that wasn't like any other typical mystery book. The stories collected here were about historical mysteries, like the question of where Yamatai-koku was located or even how Jesus manage to rise from his grave. But while the questions were not typical of mystery fiction, the way the characters discussed these "cases", came up with theories and built on these theories to arrive at a "logical" conclusion would have felt familiar to any mystery reader. The fun part of these stories was that the conclusion was always completely bonkers from a historical point of view. When you were done with a story, you knew the "truth" they arrived at was absolutely not true because it would be incredibly far-fetched, yet at the same time it would have parts that sounded really convincing, precisely because the theories were built using actual historical sources, and then examined through the deduction process as we know from mystery novels: highlighting all clues (in this case historical sources and the contradictions found there), how to interpret and explain clues/discrepancies and finally construct, through the process of proposing ideas, examining and if necessary rejecting them) a theory that explains everything, while incorporating all the clues/sources discussed. While the book was about real history and used real clues and sources, it was an excellent case study to show that mystery fiction doesnt need to be realistic to be amusing.

It shouldn't come as a surprise I was interested in reading more of this series, so today we have Shin Sekai no Nanafushigi ("The New Seven Wonders of the World" 2005), the second book to bring us to the little bar Three Ballets. Here we find the bartender Matsunaga, the historian Shizuka, the reporter Miyata with a knack for coming up with outrageous theories and this time, we also find Shizuka's guest Professor Hartman: he's visiting Japan for a congress, and Shizuka has promised to go with him to Kyoto. However, every time some other reasons pops up to prevent her from going, so she keeps meeting with Hartman in the evening at Three Ballets, promising they'll definitely go tomorrow. Hartman is very interested in Japanese culture, but his presence at the Three Ballets always leads to discussions between Miyata, Shizuka and Matsunaga about Western history, and especially, unsolved mysteries. For example, where lies Atlantis? But was also the purpose of Stonehenge, and why do so many cultures have a myth of a Great Flood? Every time they argue about these topics however, it's Miyata who ultimately arrives at a completely crazy, but strangely convincing hypothesis about those historical mysteries...

In a way, this is the exact same book as the first collection. Sure, the first book focused more on Asian history and this one more on history outside Asia, but the way each story unfolds is basically the same between both volumes. Some idle chat early on leads to the characters focusing on a specific historical mystery, they discuss various theories and interpretations regarding that mystery and finally Miyata comes up with an entertaining, but rather far-fetched explanation. For those not familiar with Asian history however, this second volume is a more accessible work, considering its topics like Noah's ark, Stonehenge, pyramids and the Nazca lines. Some minor knowledge of Japanese history and culture is handy, as often Miyata does refer to those, but considering we also have Hartman as a non-Japanese proxy character, you'd almost think this book was written for an overseas audience in the first place, as a variant version of the first book. Not that I am complaining, as both books are very entertaining.

I am not going to discuss the seven stories seperately here because they are all quite short and all you really need to know is that each story is about a major historical mystery like the aforementioned Stonehenge, Altantis or something the Yellow Emperor and his terracota army or the Moai statues. What is great is how Kujira utilizes methodology from mystery fiction to come up with batshit insane theories that somehow sounds somewhat convincing, even though your mind tells you it can't be true in anyway. What's really clever is that Kujira even manages to find a common theme between these various historical mysteries, even though they come from completely different places in the world and are set in completely different time periods. It's bonkers, but oh-so-much-fun! 

I mentioned it the review of the first book, but people who like the Professor Munakata series, or Katou's Q.E.D. Shoumei Shuuryou and/or C.M.B. Shinra Hakubutsukan no Jiken Mokuroku will love this series too, I think. Sure, these stories look at "big history" so may lack the human drama angle of Katou's manga series, but the way these tales play with interpretation, and reinterpretation of a historical event should be very recognizable.

Shin Sekai no Nanafushigi might not be improving in any way on the first volume, but it's still a very entertaining short story collection that brings a lot of romanticism to these well-known historical mysteries and riddles, and it does that using methods we all know very well from mystery fiction. The book shows us once again that mystery fiction needs to be amusing and entertaining, and not necessarily realistic and that the joys of mystery fiction can be found anywhere, even in "hard history."

Original Japanese title(s): 鯨統一郎 『新・世界の七不思議』:「アトランティス大陸の不思議」  / 「ストーンヘンジの不思議」  / 「ピラミッドの不思議」  / 「ノアの方舟の不思議」 / 「始皇帝の不思議」  / 「ナスカの地上絵の不思議」  / 「モアイ像の不思議」

Whispers In the Fog

"You are young yet, my friend," replied my host, "but the time will arrive when you will learn to judge for yourself of what is going on in the world, without trusting to the gossip of others. Believe nothing you hear, and only one-half that you see."

"The System of Dr. Tarr and Prof. Fether"

Talking about stories of the past: the new television drama based on Yokomizo Seishi's Yuri Rintarou series looks pretty good! Sure, the story has been moved to a contemporary Kyoto setting and assistant Mitsugi is now a novelist instead of a newspaper journalist, but it retains a light gothic and somewhat pulpy atmosphere befitting this series. It was about time we got more adaptations of Kindaichi Kousuke's older brother...
 

Today's book is a very strange short story collection and one could definitely argue it's not a "proper" mystery, though I did enjoy it a lot. Kujira Touichirou's debut work Yamataikoku wa Doko Desuka? ("Where is Yamatai-koku?" 1998) collects five stories that are all set in the small bar Three Ballets. Regulars of the bartender Matsunaga include the History professor Mitani, the lecture assistant Shizuka and the amateur researcher Miyata. Miyata and Shizuka have the tendency to always get into arguments about historical topics, and without any exception, it's because Miyata spouts some ridiculous theory about some major historic event, like the crucifixion of Jesus or the enlightenment of the historical Buddha, Siddhartha Gautama. But while Miyata's claims always seem too absurd to even pay any attention to, he's always able to actually prove his outlandish theories based on historical sources, begging the question if you can trust any historical facts at all.

Yamataikoku wa Doko Desuka? is a really weird book to explain. The stories collected in this volume are not really proper puzzle plot mystery stories like the ones I usually discuss here, but I think they are best described as extremely well researched experiments in deduction with a history theme. In a way, they remind me of Kemelman's famous short story The Nine Mile Walk. The stories all follow the same basic formula, themed after the 5W1H questions: Who, What, When, Why, Where and How. At the start of each tale, Miyata will present a statement that sounds absolutely ridiculous at first, considering the consensus about historical facts, like claiming that the Meiji Restoration had been planned by one single man or that the historical Buddha, Siddhartha Gautama, in fact did not reach enlightenment while meditating beneath the Bodhi Tree. While both Shizuka and the reader will at first dismiss Miyata's claim as utter nonsense, Miyata then explains the reasoning process behind his claims, usually by focusing on contradictions in the actual historical sources presented and showing his own interpretation of those contradictions.

While the mysteries discussed in this book are not carefully planned fictional mysteries, I think Kujira does a great job at showing how the reasoning process in a mystery story should work, and that is why I think this is a good example of experiments in deduction, and why this is a book that should be discussed here. Obviously the theories proposed in this book are very likely not true at all and thus fiction: the theories proposed by Kujira are not meant to be taken as historical studies that want to bring forth a paradigm shift. But in these stories, Kujira does show how the deduction process in a mystery novel should pick up on all clues (in this case historical sources and the contradictions found there), how to interpret and explain clues/discrepancies and finally construct a theory that explains everything, while incorporating all the clues/sources. Each of these stories shows how you can construct the most fanciful, yet convincing tales as long as you build properly on the clues and use some imagination, and in that sense, I think it's definitely worth reading this book to see how a tale focused solely on the deduction process could work. The stories are also quite easy to read, as it mostly consists of banter between the four characters, with the discussion slowly, but surely providing the proof for Miyata's theories.

But as you may guess, the book does require you to have some historical knowledge to truly appreciate the tales here. The title story Yamataikoku wa Doko Desuka? ("Where is Yamatai-koku?") for example probably doesn't sound really interesting if you have never heard of Yamatai-koku, but if you do know it's the name of an ancient country in Wa (Japan) which was only referenced in historical sources and that historians still don't know/don't agree on where it exactly was, you can imagine how interesting this can be. Kujira quotes a lot of genuine historical sources in his stories, which can be a bit boring, but he uses those sources to show contradictions, and from there deduce what the real meaning of those texts must be. In the case of the Yamatai-koku story for example, the focus lies on the question whether the directions to Yamatai-koku as written in the historical sources were actually correct: Kujira quotes several different sources that help him establish how and why these sources could've been wrong, and then builds on that to arrive at his (Miyata's) proposed location of Yamatai-koku. While the final story, Kiseki wa Dono You ni Nasareta no ka? ("How Was The Miracle Accomplished?") is about the Biblical resurrection of Jesus, the other stories are about Japanese/Asian history and if you're completely blank on those topics, you'll have a very hard time getting through this book. Shoutoku Taishi wa Dare Desu ka? ("Who is Shoutoku Taishi?"), Bouhon no Douki wa Nan Desu ka? ("What Was The Motive For The Betrayal?") and Ishin ga Okita no wa Naze Desu ka? ("Why Did The Restoration Occur?") deal with major incidents/figures in pre-modern Japanese history, while Satori wo Hiraita no wa Itsu Desu ka ("When Did He Attain Enlightenment?") is about the historical Buddha, so Indian/religious history. The stories expect you to have some basic knowledge about these events, as the author quickly starts quoting historical sources to move on to the alternative interpretation (so it assumes you know the accepted versions). I do have admit that these stories do feel a bit alike after a while: they all follow the exact same story structure and with the abundant quoting of historical sources, they do sometimes feel a lot longer than they actually are.

I suspect that people who like the Professor Munakata series, or Katou's Q.E.D. Shoumei Shuuryou and/or C.M.B. Shinra Hakubutsukan no Jiken Mokuroku will have a blast with this series though, as they all have similar stories, based on actual historical sources, pointing out contradictions between them and then presenting an alternative interpretation of historical events (often caused by very human motives). I personally have an enormous weak spot for these kinds of historical mysteries, so I really enjoyed this book, but I can imagine that people who like more conventional mystery stories will feel less positive about these stories.

Still, I think Yamataikoku wa Doko Desuka? is a good example of an experiment in deduction and it does a great job at recontextualizing (fantasizing about) well-known historical events. It's actually fun to see how the author uses the known historical sources to turn everything around and arrive at completely different conclusions than the accepted consensus and in that sense, it's a very unique type of mystery story. Personally, I think this is one that will become one of my highlight reads this year exactly because it's so different.

Original Japanese title(s): 鯨統一郎『邪馬台国はどこですか？』: 「悟りを開いたのはいつですか？」 /「邪馬台国はどこですか？」/ 「聖徳太子はだれですか？」 /「謀叛の動機はなんですか？」 /「維新が起きたのはなぜですか？」 /「奇蹟はどのようになされたのですか？」