Fright House of a Lighthouse

"Jan 1 — 1796. This day — my first on the light-house — I make this entry in my Diary, as agreed on with De Grät. As regularly as I can keep the journal, I will — but there is no telling what may happen to a man all alone as I am — I may get sick, or worse ....."

"The Light-House"

I don't think I have ever seen a real lighthouse in my life...

Motoroi Hayata was once a student at the prestigious Kenkoku University in Manchukuo, but the hypocricy of the Japanese empire and the war left him completely disillusioned, and since then, he has been trying to find a new purpose in life, one that help him give the war and all its victims a place in his mind. After a horrid experience in the mines in Fukuoka, Motoroi decides to become a lighthouse keeper. As Japan consists of islands, all the lighthouses along the coast are of course of vital importance to the country functioning and are state-controlled, but lighthouse keepers often live a lonely life: many of the lighthouses are found at lonely cliffs and other places far away from the nearest towns and while a lighthouse is usually manned by about three men, who might or might not also have wives with them, they seldom have the luxury to just go out for the night in the city to relax. While Motoroi was lucky enough to have been stationed at a lighthouse for two years near a small town that attracts tourists, his next assignment is less fortunate: he's assigned to the Kougasaki Lighthouse in the Gansei region in northern Japan. The lighthouse stands at the edge of a rocky cliff overlooking the wild sea and is quite far away removed from the nearest town: while you can barely make it in a day via a boat, the route via land leads through a treacherous forest, and will take almost a whole day and that's assuming you don't get lost along the way! Motoroi initially arrives on his first working day at the town and arranges for a boat to bring him to the lighthouse, but the sea is too unstable, and he is forced to stay one night at the local inn, and is told to try the land route the following day. He's given a simple map the following day, but as he walks through the forest, he feels something is watching him and he occasionally catches glimpses of something... white. This reminds him of the stories of Shiromonko-sama, a local supernatural being believed to roam this region. As it becomes night, he stumbles upon a small house in the forest, and inside he founds a young girl and an elderly woman. Motoroi is offered a meal and a warm place to sleep for the night, but he can't help but feel piercing eyes at him even as he's staying in the house. The following day, he gets new instructions and eventually makes it to the lighthouse, which for some reason he finds empty initially, which reminds him of the ghost story told among lighthouse keepers, about a lighthouse where three men were stationed at, but for some reason all of them disappeared: a diary of one of them indicated they had been feeling uneasy in the days leading up to the disappearence and talks about the stormy weather.... but the metereological reports say there was no stormy weather in that area during that period. When Motoroi finds himself settled at the Kougazaki Lighthouse however, he asks about Shiromonko-sama, and he learns that the head lighthouse keeper himself had experienced some very odd things in the time leading up to him being stationed here, that may be related to Shiromonko-sama, but were his experiences really supernatural, or can Motoroi give a more rational explanation in Mitsuda Shinzou's Byakuma no Tou ("The Tower of the White Demon", 2019)?

Byakuma no Tou is the sequel to the excellent Kokumen no Kitsune ("The Black-Faced Kitsune"), which I reviewed earlier this year. The book introduced the reader to Motoroi Hayata, who is trying to help rebuild the country by doing the dirty jobs, but who finds himself getting involved in mysterious situations involving local beliefs and monsters. Kokumen no Kitsune was initially conceived as a potential plot of Mitsuda's Toujou Genya series, which mixes folklore/tales of yokai and other supernatural beings with extremely well-written mysteries, but the focus on realism (in this case, the depiction of the life of miners during World War II and afterwards) meant the subject matter was deemed more suitable for a story not set within that world. Byakuma no Tou continues this trend by also focusing on the realistic circumstances of a hard and demanding job in post-war Japan, in this case, the life of a lighthouse keeper, and that is absolutely where this book shines the most.

The depiction of the lonely and harsh life of a lighthouse keeper is excellent, and Mitsuda's done a lot of research to make sure you really understand how hard their life must have been, being stationed at a lighthouse for a few years and then being assigned to a new place again. There's little time off, and as a lot of the lighthouse end up being in the middle of nowhere, only being visited by people bringing rations and stock equipment once every few weeks, these lighthouse keepers have to be mentally very strong, having no choice but to solve any problems they come across themselves. The team at the lighthouse is also more or less stuck with each other, as depending on the location, the nearest town might be quite far away, so you're constantly in each other's company, even on your days off. I also liked how Mitsuda depicts the life among lighthouse keepers themselves. When they are re-stationed, they are picked up by ships constantly cruising along Japan, picking up lighthouse keepers and dropping them off at their new locations as they go, so the lighthouse keepers then get time to socialize with each other, and exchange information about the locations they were stationed at themselves, and about the locations they are going to. That is also how spooky rumors regarding certain locations spread among them, and given how faraway from civilization some places are, it's quite understandable how ghost stories regarding certain lighthouses would spread, or for example the story about the lighthouse were all keepers disappeared. The isolated enviroment where lighthouse keepers had to live their lives in a way serves as the perfect breeding ground for ghost stories, and there's surprisingly a lot of synergy here. It's almost weird how we don't have more lighthouse ghost stories.

By the way, and also a disclosure message: I translated two of Oosaka Keikichi's lighthouse mysteries (The Monster of the Lighthouse and The Guardian of the Lighthouse) for the Oosaka collection published by Locked Room International, and they are both name-dropped by Motoroi in this novel: he's been reading them and other works by Oosaka. It would be funny if I ever get to translate this book too, I'd get a monopoly on Japanese lighthouse mysteries!

However, I do think that as a mystery story, this is not nearly as interesting as the previous book, and this one leans far more on the ghost/horror story element. Which is not a bad thing per se, as Mitsuda's probably better known as a horror mystery writer, than just a mystery writer, but for the most part, this book focuses more on the unsettling ghost stories that haunt lighthouse keepers, and there's not even really a focal "mystery" throughout the tale, which makes this a difficult story to discuss within the context of this blog. We basically have two narratives: we first follow Motoroi as he makes his way to the lighthouse, and on the way, he has a few strange experiences that involve him feeling he's being watched, him learning about the local demon Shiromonko-sama, a gigantic, white presence that roams the forest and the cliffs near the sea, and the mysterious house in the forest where Motoroi spends the night: he later learns the house is known as the White House and that the grandmother is a kind of priestress serving Shiromonko-sama as well as a midwife, and is seen in the town as a 'necessary evil': she's only 'used' whenever people need Shiromonko-sama's help or want to appease it, but otherwise everyone tries to avoid her and her whole family line. The bulk of the book however follows the tale of the head lighthouse keeper, who happens to have experienced very similar things to Motoroi. We are told of how he had already heard about Shiromonko-sama before he was stationed here, because long ago, he had been stationed at the neighboring lighthouse and like Motoroi, he too had sighted glimpses of a white being following him in the forest, and even ended up staying at the "White House" after getting lost. We then are told the story of how he met his wife, and how eventually they had something precious taken from them by Shiromonko-sama, but that is the extent of the mystery in this book: various curious and creepy incidents that occur to different people at different times. Eventually, Motoroi has an idea he can provide a rational explanation to most of these odd occurences. Some of his inferences show very clever twists, but overall, it's fairly... tame? I guess. The overall explanation relies on a few hard-to-swallow coincidences, though they become a bit more acceptable if you just see this foremost as a ghost/horror story, with a "rational explanation" tacked on. In fact, I think a lot of readers will probably appreciate this book better as a horror story, because it's really good as such. Mitsuda's a seasoned horror storyteller, and you can clearly tell from this tale, as he very effectively juxtaposes the very realistic depiction of a lighthouse keeper's life to that of the supernatural threat that hovers in the background. But as a mystery story, it lacks a clear, driving hook, and at times feels more like a collection of random ideas/mysteries. This might be disappointing especially if you come from the Genya novels and expect something as intricately plotted as those stories.

Nonetheless, I did think Byakuma no Tou was a fun read, but it definitely leans far more towards horror, and is probably better read primarly as such. I do really enjoy the way Mitsuda depicts these harsh professions in post-war Japan in such detailed manner and how he uses them as a device to tell interesting horror stories, so I'll definitely read more of this series: at the moment, there's also a third adventure with Motoroi, so I'll get to that eventually.

Original Japanese title(s): 三津田信三『白魔の塔』

Mine Your Own Business

"Moria. You fear to go into those mines. The dwarves delved too greedily and too deep. You know what they awoke in the darkness of Khazad-dûm. Shadow and flame."

"The Fellowship of the Ring"

It's not actually set in the city of Fukuoka, but it is set in the Chikuhou region within the prefecture and plenty of characters use the local dialect, so I count it as my "I try to read at least one story set in Fukuoka once a year" story for this year!

When Motoroi Hayata first arrived at the prestigious Kenkoku University in Manchukuo, he believed in its ideals of ethnic harmony and a greater East-Asian power sphere, but his time there left him disillusioned, as he soon realizes there was no harmony here: Japanese students and teachers were treated as being superior, while the people from other locations like the Korean peninsula were treated as second-rate, only there to serve the Japanese. This hypocrisy of the Japanese empire's goals became painfully clear to Hayata. After the war, he found a steady job in Osaka, but one day, he just gives up and decides to just quit his job and take the train south (because the north is cold). He has no destination in mind, but decides to get off the train at Ketsune in the Chikuhou region in Fukuoka, as the view reminds him of his time in Manchukuo. He's barely out on the station, when he is approached by a man who wants to recruit Hayata as a miner. Hayata is almost forced inside a truck ready to go, but is saved by a man pretending to know Hayata. His savior introduces himself as Aizato Minoru, who explains that during the war, he had been a recruiter for a mining company himself in the Korean peninsula: while ostensibly, they only recruited volunteers, he has to admit they basically forced people to come with them to work in the mines in Fukuoka, as coal was a necessary resource for the war. The memory of the young Korean Jeong Nam-seon in particular remains a troublesome one for Aizato: the two men had a special bond, as both reminded the other of their own older brothers. Despite Aizato's attempt to get him off, Nam-seon too was forced to sign up to work for the mining company and he ended up at the worst possible mine, where Koreans were basically treated as slaves as they mined for coal, and Nam-seon would eventually find his demise during an air raid. After the war, Aizato stopped his job as a recruiter and became a coal miner himself at the Nenne Mines at Mount Yako, as a way to make amends for his past. Which is why he also tried to save Hayata from being recruited, but Hayata feels he wants to make up for his past too, and he asks Aizato to help him get employed at Nenne Mines too.

At the Nenne Mines, Hayata soon learns life as a miner s is still very harsh, even if it's better than during the war. While the miners aren't treated as full slaves now, the long shifts in the darkness are far from light work, especially as all mining companies try to maximize profits and of course, safety often ends up the first victim, meaning the risk of cave-ins and other crises always remain very present. Hayata ends up living together with Aizato in the singles dormitory, and soon learns Aizato is kind of a loner within the community, which Hayata suspects might have to do with Aizato's past as a recruiter. Hayata is a bit more social, and through his talks with his co-workers, he learns about the superstitions miners have. He hears ghost stories about mysterious women appearing in the deepest of the mine tunnels who offer to help lonely miners, but it seldom ends well for them. Foxes are worshipped as the deities of Mount Yako, with the white fox being worshipped as a symbol of prosper and great harvest (coal output), while the black fox is feared as a symbol of bad harvest, and it is said that people who die in the mine tunnels, are turned into a black fox themselves. One morning, as they are working the early shift, one man cries out: a cave-in! Veterans soon recognize the characteristic sound of the ceiling sinking in, and everyone tries to find their way out, when another disaster strikes: gas! The miners barely make it out in time, with some of them being carried out because they already inhaled too much gas. When the supervisors check their lists, they however learn one man didn't make it out: Aizato Minoru. It turns out his mining buddy of today didn't wait for Aizato as he fled their tunnel, a deed many consider absolutely unforgivable as even if you don't like your co-workers really, miners never leave each other behind. Which is why the miners also become infuriated when the mining company seems very reluctant to send their rescue unit down the mines to save Aizato, citing the risk on more cave-ins and the gas, and they will only attempt it after doing a daily canary test (sending canaries down the mines to see if they survive the gas). While the miners try to convince the company to send their rescue unit sooner, Hayata is approached by the girl who works in the canteen, as children saw something odd at this time: a man wearing a black fox mask entered the room of Kido, a former miner of Korean descent who works as a handyman around the mining village. The black fox is feared by everyone here, so Hayata agrees to have a look in Kido's room, as Kido's living in the room next to Aizato and his. When he enters Kido's room however, he finds Kido's body hanging from a shimewana, a sacred rope usually found at shrines. At first, it looks like suicide, but where did the man with the black fox mask go? The children have actually kept an eye on the front door ever since the figure entered the room, and the windows in the back can't actually be opened due to the bad building quality of the dormitory, so the figure couldn't have escaped unseen! When then more people in the dormitory end up dead in a similar way, hanging from shimewana in locked rooms, people start to fear it's Aizato's spirit, turned into a black fox and looking for more people to join him in the depths of the mines, but Hayata isn't quite convinced as he decides to investigate these murders in Mitsuda Shinzou's 2016 novel Kokumen no Kitsune ("The Black-Faced Kitsune").

As a big fan of Mitsuda's Toujou Genya series, I have to admit I was a bit disappointed when I read Ikan, his first novel: whereas I feel the Genya series hit a great balance between horror and a genuine well-plotted detective, Ikan was clearly more horror. Of course, I know Mitsuda also writes conventional horror, but I am not really interested in that. However, in my search for stories that in spirit are closer to the Genya series, I soon found about Kokumen no Kitsune. When Mitsuda first started doing his research for this novel, it was actually with the intention of writing a Genya novel set around a coal mine, but as Mitsuda read more and more about it, he felt the theme didn't really fitted the Genya series, and he decided to make it its own standalone novel. Still, this book is far closer to the Genya series than Ikan was, though it is also definitely not just a Genya novel with different characters, and it certainly works best as its own thing.

For one of the greatests feats of this novel is definitely the depiction of the harsh, gritty life of miners in Japan both during and after World War II. The story takes a long time for the set-up of the murders, and the mystery doesn't really get started until halfway the novel, but the lead-up time is used excellently to introduce the reader to the horrifying life as a miner. This is a horror novel, but a lot of the horror is actually based on reality: we hear about Aizato's past where he was a miner recruiter during the war, and the stories we hear about how they basically kidnapped people to work in the mines as de-facto slaves is just terrifying. This is also put in an international context, as we learn how as the war continued and resources became scarce, the Japanese empire eventually decided to "recruit" Koreans from their colonies to work in the coal mines of nearby Kyushu. Promises of high pay and just a one or two year contract after which they were free to go, were of course quickly broken, and while the Japanese miners were treated slightly more favorably, it was clear that miners were just a replacable resource to the companies running the mines, with safety never winning from coal output in terms of priorities. While things improved after the war, you still have ruthless recruiters who try to force lonely people in signing contracts, and even now, safety is not a priority for many of the mining companies, like at the Nenne Mines, which doesn't even have its own rescue unit, but has to wait for one to be sent from the main company in case anything happens (and of course, by the time such a unit arrives, hours if not days will have passed).

And we're just talking about the "outside" working circumstances here, but crawling into pitch-dark tunnels with just a light on your helmet and having to choose between wearing clothes to protect your body from the stones or wearing nothing because it's insanely hot inside the tunnels, carrying buckets full of coals to carts which need to moved out too and of course the danger of cave-ins and gas are all things that don't really make the life of a miner fun. In the first half of the book we hear also a lot about the superstitions of miners, like them at least trying to appease the fox spirits of Mount Yako, or stories about ghosts appearing in the depths of the tunnels when people work alone or about people who die and are left in the tunnels become spirits who roam the surface to take others along. Great stuff here, that really set a spooky atmosphere.

In the second half, after the cave-in and Aizato being left behind in the gas-filled mines, the mystery really starts with the apparent suicide of Kido in his room. Children saw a man wearing a black fox mask enter the room, but didn't see him leave through the front door, even though they were watching it until Hayata arrived at the scene. The back window was not locked, but the whole building was built rather shoddily, and like with parts of Aizato/Hayato's room, the window's simply completely stuck in the frame. At first, Kido's death is treated as a suicide, even if using a shimewana to hang yourself is a bit weird, but the following day, another neighbor of Hayata's found dead in his own room, and this time it's a real locked room, with the door and windows all locked and bolted.  The days after, even more people in the dorm die under the same circumstances, which soon fuel rumors of Aizato's spirit having escaped the mines to kill these people, but Hayata is of course quite convinced a real person killed these men somehow and tries to investigate these deaths, but the managers of the mining company seem very intent on handling these deaths as suicides, as a murder investigation would of course put a halt on mining activities for some time.

I do have to say that as a locked room mystery, Kokumen no Kitsune isn't as intricately plotted as the bangers we see in the Genya series. I think the first one, with the figure seen to enter Kido's room but not leave, is the best in the sense it fits the unique setting of a small miner's community the best by far. Subsequent locked rooms were less interesting I think: whereas in the Genya novels Mitsuda presents insanely densily plotted mysteries with all kinds of clues eventually coming together to point at the solution and often show synergy between the multiple impossible situations, that is not really the case here. The solutions to the individual locked rooms come rather suddenly, with Hayata just realizing how they were done even though he didn't really investigate the crime scenes and there wasn't really a particular reason why he couldn't have realized it earlier (there was no specific impulse that made the deduction only possible later). Synergy between the various locked rooms is also nearly nihil, meaning that solving one case doesn't necessarily lead to an epiphany regarding a different one, which is something I really liked about the Genya plots. That said, setting the individual locked rooms aside, I did really like Kokumen no Kitsune on the whole, as the way the plot is set in motion and how characters behave and by extent, make this murder mystery possible, is firmly set in the realistic post-war world of miners as portrayed by Mitsuda, and the way he also ties it to miner's superstitions is really good. There's not much delving into folklore and the meaning behind customs/traditions like in the Genya stories here, so you get a lot of spooky stories without an "explanation" to them, but that really helps sell the setting of the mines, a place not even the people who work in the deepest parts of the mountains, truly comprehend.

So overall, I did enjoy Kokumen no Kitsune a lot. As for the mystery plot, it doesn't reach the highest heights of the Genya series at all, but it still managed to scratch that itch of mine for well-plotted horror-mystery with an emphasis on local folklore/ghost stories, and in this book, we also get a very fascinating look in the lives of coal miners in post-war Japan, and that part is absolutely the highlight. The mining community and their circumstances are also put to good use for the mystery plot, providing a unique location that you simply won't find in other stories. 

Original Japanese title(s): 三津田信三『黒面の狐』