The Adventure of the Red Circle

「この世のどんな出来事であっても、それが文章になってしまった時点で、それはフィクションでしょう。小説というものは、すべてフィクション。ノンフィクション小説、というのはそれだけで自己矛盾、自家撞着してしまうのではないかしら」

『QED ベイカー街の問題』

"Everything that occurs in this world becomes fiction the moment it is written down. Novels are always fiction. Non-fiction novels are by name alone self-contradicting oxymorons."

"QED The Problem of Baker Street"

I don't consider myself a true Holmesian (Sherlockian), but I am fairly familiar with many of the major Holmesian discussions. No idea where I pick these things up.

Since a year or so, I've been reading the manga series Q.E.D. Shoumei Shuuryou by Katou Motohiro semi-regularly. Some people might not be aware that there is also a completely unrelated mystery novel series titled QED, written by Takada Takafumi. I only read the first novel in the series a long time ago, so I am not very familiar with the series, but in general, this concept of this series is that it tackles both 'real-time' mysteries as well as historical mysteries, regarding historical events, famous persons or literature. The first novel for example had a famous Japanese poetry (waka) collection as its theme and in order to solve the 'real-time' mystery, it was also necessary to solve a mystery hidden within the ancient poems. The detective of this series is Kuwabara Takashi, nickname Tataru. He's an eccentric young pharmacist (specialized in Chinese medicine) who is quite knowledgeable about err, a lot, but especially literature. His assistant Nana is one of Tataru's very few college friends and while she too is a pharmacist, she works in a Western-style pharmacy.

The first two novels in this series were related to Japanese history, so the theme of the third novel might surprise readers, even if the title gives everything away: QED Baker Gai no Mondai ("QED The Problem of Baker Street", 2000) is of course about modern, British literature: Sherlock Holmes. One day, Nana runs into her college friend Yukiko, who turns out to be a Sherlockian. She's a member of the Baker Street Smokers, a Sherlockian club created by restaurant/club owner Hotta Soujirou. The Baker Street Smokers consists of four members and usually has small private meetings, but Yukiko explains they'll be holding a party on the sixth of January to celebrate the third anniversary of the Baker Street Smokers, as well as the hundredth anniversary since Sherlock Holmes returned to the land of the living in The Adventure of the Empty House. All members can invite people to come along, and the four regular members will even perform a little theatre play based on a Holmes story. Nana and Tataru are invited as Yukiko's guests, and Tataru even turns out to be a pretty dedicated Sherlockian, who can't wait to discuss a certain Sherlockian matter with other people. The party comes to an abrupt end when Sakimaki, one of the BSS members, is killed while getting dressed for the play. He was found lying on a table, stabbed in his stomach and holding a piece of paper with some incoherent writing on it. Given that few people at the party knew Sakimaki, suspicion naturally falls upon the remaining three BBS members, but it also appears Sakimaki's death may have to do with Tsukiji Natsuyo, a woman who was going to become a member of the BBS, but committed suicide some months earlier and who was doing research on a certain Sherlockian problem.

I am no expert on Japanese poetry, but I am familiar with Sherlock Holmes and Holmesian problems, so it was relatively easier to get into this novel than the first in the QED series. For those to whom the terms Holmesian/Sherlockian sound unfamiliar: it's a kind of game where people accept the Sherlock Holmes stories as written by Dr. Watson as having actually occured and discuss anomalies and other contradictions in the stories ('mistakes') with the premise that the events and characters mentioned in the stories are all real. For example mistakes in dates in the stories etc. are not 'mistakes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle' but mistakes by Dr. Watson, or Dr. Watson had a reason to lie about the date, or there's some other in-universe reason. By the way, in Japanese, the preferred term is Sherlockian (like in the US), as opposed to Holmesian, which has my personal preference to be honest. Some might also remember the manga Sherlockian! I once discussed, which was actually quite informative.

Anyway, so QED Baker Gai no Mondai is about a murder committed among Holmesians, and meanwhile Tataru's also occupied with a Holmesian problem that bothers him: why was Sherlock Holmes acting so differently before and after the events of The Final Problem and The Adventure of the Empty House? While the novel does give brief explanations and summaries about all the relevant Holmes stories mentioned, it's clear that this novel is best enjoyed if the reader has some affinity/prior knowledge of Sherlock Holmes, or else you'll just be wondering why everyone is making such a big deal about a fictional character (blashpemy!). To be honest, the Holmesian mystery is far more interesting than the actual, real-time murder. In fact, the death count doesn't stay at one in this novel, but the other death isn't that interesting either, even if it involves a dying message with a Holmesian twist. But while the murders themselves are rather straightforward, in order to solve some parts of the mystery you need to have rather specific knowledge about medicine that isn't mentioned in the story until the denouement and basically, it's the 'anyone could've committed the murder, so let's focus on motive' type of story.

The motive behind the murders of course ties to a Holmesian problem, and I found that part far more interesting. Over the course of the novel, the reader will be presented various types of Holmesian problems of varying importance, but the most important is of course the one that's on Tataru's mind. The ground he treads with his theory is not particularly unknown, but it's fairly entertaining and well within the realms of what you'd expect of a Holmesian theory. And as you may expect from this series, aspects of Tataru's literary theory are also mirrored in the real murders, so it's necessary to solve the literary mystery in order to arrive at the motive, and even partially the modus operandi behind the actual deaths. I do like this linking idea, but in this particular case, it becomes a bit too artificial, with a lot of coincidence having to happen to create such a nicely mirrored situation in motive and actual murder.

I'm not even actually sure what to make of QED Baker Gai no Mondai. I definitely like the Holmesian background theme and it goes just deep enough to entertain me as a moderate Holmes lover, without feeling too detailed, but it's also very... vanilla-flavored in terms of the main murder mystery plot. The literary side of the mystery is far more interesting and while there are some interesting ideas like the dying message left by a Holmesian (can you guess what he did?), I thought the 'real' side of the mystery so plain and nondescript, I'm sure I'll have forgotten the details in a few months, while I am sure I will remember Tataru's Holmesian theory. QED Baker Gai no Mondai is a very safe read if you like the Holmesian theme, but on its own, it's hardly a stand-out mystery novel.

Original Japanese title(s): 高田崇史『QED　ベイカー街の問題』

Cards on the Table

白露に風の吹きしく秋の野は 

つらぬきとめぬ玉ぞ散りける

文屋朝康

Through a gust of wind the white dew on the autumn grass

Scatters like a broken necklace

Funya no Asayasu

Things I do when I don't write about Japanese detective fiction: write detective fiction in Japanese.

The title of Takada Takafumi's QED Hyakunin Isshu no Shu ("Q.E.D. - The Curse of Hyakunin Isshu") refers to a famous anthology of Japanese poems (waka) compiled by Fujiwara no Teika. As the anthology's name suggets, the collection consists of 'one hundred persons, one poem each'. The poems of Hyakunin Isshu are also for the traditional uta-garuta (poem card) game, which consists of two sets of cards. The first set, the yomi-fuda, contains cards with the first line of a poem, which are read aloud. The second set of cards, tori-fuda, are placed in front of the players and have the second line of the poem written on them. Players thus try to obtain the correct tori-fuda to the yomi-fuda being read. And it was a yomi-fuda, with the first line of the poem quoted above, which was found in the dead hands of wealthy Hyakunin Isshu karuta fan Masakaki Dairoku, murdered in his own mansion almost a year ago. The case seemingly ended with the suicide of his daughter not long afterwards, but the police still think the murderer is out there. In need of information, reporter Komatsuzaki seeks the help of his old friend Kuwabara Takashi (whose name sounds like a traditional phrase to ward off evil), who besides being a pharmacist, also happens to be knowledgeable about Hyakunin Isshu.

I am not interested in history per se, but I've always had a weakness for ancient conspiracy plots/untold history/folklore etcetera. So Takada Takafumi's Q.E.D. had been on my reading list for a long time, as his books were precisely about linking history with detective plots. QED Hyakunin Isshu no Shu is the first novel in the series and while it has interesting points, I can't but be a bit disappointed by it. The main problem of the book is that it seems like Takada had a whole bunch of interesting ideas, but couldn't find a way to connect all these dots together in a convincing way. The reader is presented with a misty cloud of which the complete form is just vaguely clear.

For example, we are first introduced to the series detective Kuwabara, because he is an expert on Hyakunin Isshu and he might thus deduce the meaning behind the card the deceased had in his hand (spoilers: it was a dying message!). This is a semi-logical relation (I say semi, because I am not sure why Kuwabara was created as a pharmacist who happens to know literature, instead of, I don't know, an expert on literature). And yes, having Kuwabara explaining a bit on the origin of Hyakunin Isshu is also still relevant. But what Kuwabara (and thus writer Takada) does, is not just explain a bit. What Kuwabara does, is hold a complete lecture course on the subject, including presenting an admittedly interesting theory behind the selection process of the poems of the Hyakunin Isshu, but of which only ten percent is relevant to solving the dying message.

Don't get me wrong though, what Kuwabara in the end discovers about the Hyakunin Isshu is quite interesting and it shows the research writer Takada did for the book, but it has too little to do with the murder. Reading QED Hyakunin Isshu no Shu is like reading two barely related storylines. The individual storylines are fine on their own, but there is no reason to force them together in one story. Half of the book could have easily been scrapped (especially as the 'final hint that led Kuwabara to the truth' was something already said early in the grand lecture, the rest was just further exposition...) and you'd still have a coherent dying message story.

So let's look at the two storylines seperatedly, because that makes more sense to me. The secret behind Hyakunin Isshu definitely surprised me, but it requires quite a bit of knowledge on classical Japanese literature and history, which aren't exactly my fields of expertise (I am more of modern literature and history). Fun to read, but written a bit clumsily perhaps, with parts written too theoretically and other parts too repetitive (no, there is no need to give five of six examples, two or three are enough; yes, I see where you're going, you don't have to explain it for five pages...).

The actual murder was... better, but maybe not fair. There is also a kind of impossible situation present besides the dying message and the (weak) link with Hyakunen Isshu does provide a hint to the dying message, but only barely. The solution was sort of funny, in the sense that I was first afraid that it would require specialist knowledge on classical literature; I was spared this, but instead of that, you do require specialist knowledge of psychology and medicine. Which is something I don't have. You might know those stories where all kind of hints lead to a conclusion someone was colour blind, well, those I usually get quite quickly nowadays, but a similarly hinted story for some obscure psychological disorder? How is the average reader supposed to pick that up?! It's even disappointing, because the basic premise / concept behind the impossible situation is interesting, also in the way it links with the Hyakunen Isshu, but the execution...

In the end, QED Hyakunin Isshu no Shu just left me with a great pile of questions. Why force these two storylines together? Why are the parts on the Hyakunen Isshu and the murder part so different in tone? Why does the interpretation of the dying message feel weak/ not conclusive enough? Why a pharmacist if you need a character with knowledge on literature? Why the need for an extra assistent/sidekick role in the story in the form of the fellow-pharmacist Nana, if you already have one in the form of the reporter? Deep in its core, QED Hyakunin Isshu no Shu has some promising elements, but it just doesn't work in the way it is now.

Original Japanese title(s): 高田崇史　『QED　百人一首の呪』