#the adventures of kosuke kindaichi

[waitingforgodotyaoi]

found this at the local record store and kind of amazed to be honest. genuinely an incredible grab 🧛🌹

[velvetbyrne]

「Ranpo, Mushi, Seishi」 – Tales from the Burgeoning World of Japanese Mystery

After re-reading Bungou Stray Dogs and with better understanding of the history behind the figures of Japanese Literature, I find myself falling further in love with the Perfect Crime Arc of the BSD Manga.

In a span of three chapters, Mushitarou went from an unknown to one of my favorite mystery authors out there. An outcast of the detective novel world often disregarded due to his pedantic and frankly bizarre way of writing his stories.

Further reading about his life made me realize that this arc is a complete recreation of a section of Mushitarou's life, the other authors he interacted within his short career and an everlasting impact between giants of the Early-Showa Detective Novel scene. It is shocking how Asagiri and Harukawa conceals and works with the details of the story so well, blending in so many different parts of his life into the manga.

The Lineup

To get a better feel of who the three main figures are in this story, I must first introduce the three main authors of this story.

Edogawa Ranpo (left), Oguri Mushitarou (center), Yokomizo Seishi (right)

Edogawa Ranpo (江戸川乱歩, 1894 –1965) was a detective novelist who made a name with his many detective novels which made him a key part of the mystery novel landscape even up to the modern day. He is most well known for creating the character of Akechi Kogorou who first appeared in The Murder on D Hill (D坂の殺人事件) and would later star in many of his novels.

Oguri Mushitarou (小栗虫太郎, 1901 - 1946) was a detective novelist who was known for his bizarre writing style. His use of difficult kanji along with furigana guides for many of his stories makes his works some of the most difficult works to read in Japanese. His most well known work is The Black Death Mansion Murders (黒死館殺人事件) along with the detective Horimizu Rintarou.

Yokomizo Seishi (横溝正史, 1902 - 1981) was a detective novelist who was a master of the 'honkaku' mystery genre. His work The Honjin Murders (本陣殺人事件) and detective Kosuke Kindaichi continue to be a staple of modern Japanese pop culture.

The Making of a Genre

Misery (無惨) by Kuroiwa Ruikou (黒岩涙香) is oft regarded as the first Japanese mystery novels which brought the genre into the public consciousness. A simple murder mystery tale of gambling seemingly gone awry. From this spark then came numerous authors such as Morishita Uson (森下雨村), Ooshita Udaru (大下宇陀児), Hamao Shirou (濱尾四郎) and an up and coming author named Edogawa Ranpo.

Ranpo made a name for himself with the publication of The Two-Sen Copper Coin (二銭銅貨) in 1923 which made him the undisputed 'king' of Japanese mystery novels. With this influential position, Ranpo's comments often brought attention to many other authors working withing the genre. Along with this, magazines geared towards younger readers such as Shin Seinen began to become popular as the youth of Japan became enthralled with tales of mystery and adventure.

The Perfect Crime — The Story and the Arc

Out of all of the arcs in Bungo Stray Dogs, I feel like the Perfect Crime Arc is one that nails the heart of Bungou Media at best; a transformative work about authors and their works, how they treated one another and how they stand in the world of literature. Many of the characters in BSD are very much based on their real-life counterparts such as Dazai and Ooba Youzou of No Longer Human (人間失格) and/or The Flowers of Buffoonery (道化の華) fame. Ranpo and Mushitarou both are great representations of their works and style but more importantly, their relationship tells of their time as mystery novelists.

While Ranpo continues to enjoy mainstream fame not only within but outside Japan as well, Mushitarou is often relegated to the less-mainstream, some would call him your 'favorite's favorite'. But there's a big reason as to why Mushitarou's so much less well-known in the west and it boils down to his writing style. An "absurd" use of furigana, stretching the limits of the Japanese language with an example below from his magnum opus, The Black Death Mansion Murder Case:

Heavy and difficult kanji along with the furigana of various foreign languages, a writing style derided by critics such as Sakaguchi Ango who called it as 'imitating the worst aspects of S. S. van Dine'. This quirk would also be adapted into the Bungou Stray Dogs manga as some of Mushitarou's dialogue is written the way the real-life Mushitarou's writing style

Mushitarou's connection with Dostoevsky may have also been derived further by the story of The Perfect Crime (完全犯罪) which sees Russian characters such as Vasily Zharov who was the leading character of the story.

The story behind the publication of Mushitarou's The Perfect Crime is the main inspiration behind the story of the Perfect Crime arc.

In Spring 1933 Oguri Mushitarou, then a young and new author, submitted a 600-page mystery novel script to Kouga Saburou (甲賀三郎). After reading through it, Saburou dismissed the script saying that it was far too long; recommending Mushitarou to submit something shorter. With this recommendation in mind, Mushitarou submitted the first draft of The Perfect Crime to Saburou which impressed his peer greatly. Saburou however, still felt as if it'd be something difficult to pitch to publishers and even considered enlisting the help of Edogawa Ranpo to get it published.

Saburou then went on and decided to send the draft to then editor of the Shin Seinen magazine, novelist Mizutani Jun (水谷準) who took a quick look and then dismissed the work entirely, putting it to his desk drawer and quickly forgetting it. Shin Seinen was at this point a hub for popular literature for young boys with detective and adventure novels galore with authors such as Yumeno Kyuusaku (夢野久作), Unno Juuza (海野十三) and even Kouga Saburou himself publishing their works in the magazine. Starting from its New Year 1933 issue, they planned to include at least a 100-page one-shot story from various authors.

Yokomizo Seishi, who was at this point one of Shin Seinen's star writers, got sick with hemoptysis which lead to the cancellation of one of his stories which was to be published in the July 1933 issue of the Magazine. With this, the July issue had lost its main story; that is until Mizutani Jun, who was in a scramble to find a replacement, remembered the manuscript which Mushitarou had sent in. He quickly realized that the script was about the length needed to cover for the issue and quickly read over the work. Mizutani then also assured Yokomizo that he should take a rest instead rather than forcing himself to write.

The following is the editor's note written by Mizutani for the publication of the story:

The 100-page "The Perfect Crime" was written by a complete newcomer. This month's edition was supposed to be written by Yokomizo Seishi, but the author suddenly became ill and was unable to write, so this work was substituted for him. As you will see upon reading it, this work is a truly excellent work of detective fiction. Readers may like or dislike the setting or the descriptions, but I hope you will read it to the very last line and congratulate this newcomer on his future prospects.

The Perfect Crime was indeed Mushitarou's debut work, its publication taking center stage and substituting the work of one of the most popular mystery novelists of the era. The fact that the work was deemed "worthy" to substitute Yokomizo's work itself is already high praise.

Yokomizo then also commented with the following after reading the story written by Mushitarou:

"Who could have ever found such a powerful pinch hitter*? Even if I had been in good health, I was not confident that I could write a masterpiece as fascinating as 'The Perfect Crime.'" *A Pinch Hitter is a substitute batter in baseball.

This publication marked the beginning of Mushitarou's friendship with Yokomizo. The two of them met in a bar where Mushitarou said that "Because of your illness, I was able to debut much faster." To which Yokomizo responded with "Don't be silly, you would have debuted regardless whether I was sick or not." Mushitarou then continued saying "That may be true, but regardless the opportunity came quicker because of your illness." Yokomizo then promised, "All right then, next time something happens to you, I'll be sure to cover for you."

The two would be separated for most of the war-time, with them writing letters back and forth about detective novels while continuing to publish works as Yokomizo fled to Okayama due to the outbreak of World War II. Despite Yokomizo ever hardly sending any correspondence during this period, he continued to reply to letters sent by Mushitarou. In early spring 1946, Yokomizo received a letter from Mushitarou saying that he was going to fully devote himself to writing full-fledged novels which Yokomizo agreed with.

After the war had ended, Yokomizo went back to the literary world where he would discover that Mushitarou had passed away suddenly due to Methyl poisoning in a telegram and Unno Juuza would later explain to him the full extent of Mushitarou's untimely death. This death shook Yokomizo and he was unable to do anything for the next few days, especially due to the letter sent by Mushitarou, clearly passionate about his coming works.

Due to Mushitarou's sudden death, Yamazaki Tetsuya (山崎徹也) who was the editor-in-chief of the magazine Rock needed someone to replace Mushitarou's work for the upcoming issue. Yokomizo, who was in the middle of serialization of "The Honjin Murders" in the magazine Houseki decided to 'cover' for Mushitarou and published "The Butterfly Murders" in the magazine.

"I was no match for you"

Edogawa Ranpo at this time as the mystery novelist of the time. Ranpo at this point had met and known many other mystery novelists from Ookura Teruko and once, even met up with Oguri Mushitarou as he wrote down in 40 Years of Detective Novels (探偵小説四十年)

According to Ranpo, the two of them met once in 1946 and in this conversation Mushitarou said to Ranpo, "Edogawa-san, it seems at the end I was no match for you." to which Ranpo then replied, "Not at all, you're a better writer than I am." Which was of course replicated at the end of the arc.

The Characterification of Oguri Mushitarou

In her paper 'No longer Dazai : the re-authoring and "character-ification" of literary celebrity in contemporary Japanese popular culture', Jaylene Laturnas describes the process of Characterification (キャラクター化) as follows:

Character-ification refers to the act of turning anything from living beings to inanimate objects and abstract concepts into characters via anthropomorphism and personification (gijinka) or caricature (deforume).

Bungou Stray Dogs of course, is of course, a series that takes these authors and characterizies them in the gijinka form as stated by Asagiri himself in a 2014 interview. While most characters in Bungou Stray Dogs are 'gijinka' of their works and characters, Mushitarou occupies an interesting space as his actions and characterizations leans heavier towards the real author and the events within his short literary career. There's a clear degree of difference between how Mushi is portrayed in the series in comparison to his other fellow authors as it leans so much closer to real-events than any other author has been depicted in the series (arguably, Kunikida's turbulent relationship with Sasaki Nobuko may be the closest thing but enough creative liberties have been taken to completely differentiate the real person and the fictional character). Even the ending to the arc with Ranpo's deduction of what actually happened is in reference to a real event between the two-real life authors. It makes me want more of this rather than the arc following these 3 chapters.

The depiction of Mushitarou's friendship with the already-dead-Yokomizo in the series is just excellent, I do think a core tenet of their real-life friendship is their willingness to do anything for one another, stemming from that fateful meeting through their debut. It makes sense how in the series that this willingness is taken to the very extreme. Real-life Yokomizo's illness and BSD Yokomizo's illness parallels one another in the sense that it both brought Mushitarou into the limelight, a 'debut' for both real-life Mushi into the literary world and a 'debut' for Mushi the character in Bungou Stray Dogs. His ability being named after his debut novel is also just like the cherry on top, every layer just perfectly slotting in so well.

To examine the characters' real-life and re-contextualize it in such a way that it fits the Bungou Stray Dogs framework, I honestly would like more of this going forward and I can only hope it does happen.

Afterword

I am so so very sorry this article took a while to finish, many sources are only in Japanese and for many of them I had to verify it. Along with graduating, job-hunting and also visiting Japan earlier this year, I was too busy and I overshot when I was going to finish this.

I can't help it though, I really do love Mushishi and his silly antics and his works have somewhat inspired me to write again too. I still plan on doing deep dives like these though I want to try and write about authors not in BSD.

Until then, adieu!

Sources used:

坂口安吾. 「推理小説論」 「新潮　第四七巻第四号」 1950（昭和25）年4月1日発行

小栗宣治. 「小伝・小栗虫太郎」 『日本探偵小説全集6 小栗虫太郎集』付録〈創元推理文庫〉（東京創元社、1987年）所収。

水谷準. 「作家をつくる話――なつかしき「新青年」時代」 新青年1985年2月新春特別号第32巻第1号

横溝正史. 「小栗虫太郎に関する覚書」

江戸川乱歩. 「探偵小説四十年」

Laturnas, Jaylene "No longer Dazai : the re-authoring and "character-ification" of literary celebrity in contemporary Japanese popular culture" (2023) UBC

朝霧カフカ & 春河 35 "【特集】 文豪で遊ぼう: 「文豪ストレイドッグス」原作者 & 漫画家インタビュー" 2014年4月

[babygray]

I admit it. I fast-forward through the opening of Ron Kamonohashi's Forbidden Deductions. Mostly because I don't particularly like Union Square Garden's "Ikenai Fool Logic". I think it's too chipper.

But! because I kept fast-forwarding, I missed two interesting things.

First! The opening changes. After each mystery, the people walking through the town come into focus, revealing themselves.

The couple that was blurry in episode 2, for example, become more distinct in episode 4.

Second! The second half of the opening is a chase through different mystery adventures.

First, they run past chrysanthemums and richly-dressed mannequins borrowed from The Inugami Clan (犬神家の一族, Inugami-ke no ichizoku), and Kamonohashi is dressed like Kosuke Kindaichi, the fictional detective created by Seishi Yokomizo. The screenshot is from the 2006 film adaptation.

Second, Kamonohashi is in Poirot's suit and bow tie and they're on the Orient Express, opening the door to find a dead body in a train car. The screenshot is from the ITV series' adaptation from 2010.

Third, Kamonohashi dons an old trench coat and sits in the back of a car, bottle of wine in hand. "Any Old Port in the Storm", eh? The screenshot is from the second episode of Columbo, season 3.

Finally, the chase ends as they run into a bookstore and find another dead body, this time a woman with unusual marks on her back, referencing "The Case of the Murder on D. Hill" (D坂の殺人事件) by Edogawa Rampo, starring his fictional detective, Kogoro Akechi. The screenshot is from the 2015 adaptation.

I only figured out the Columbo one on my own. This tweet pointed out the others to me.

[majortomwaits]

hiiii, top 5 album covers <33

Ooooh, that's a fantastic question, thank you, Carol!

5. Jethro Tull - Aqualung The cover practically tells you everything about the sound, it's muddy and faded and yet refreshing and exciting, uncanny.

4. Tom Waits - Swordfishtrombones My favourite when it comes to his album covers, drastically different compared to his other releases (previous and later) and includes the great Angelo Rossitto, so that's a bonus

3. Dead Man's Bones - Dead Man's Bones This one surprised me and delighted me mainly because I expected a slicker cover compared to the sound, and that's exactly why it's in my top five

2. The Mystery Kindaichi Band - The Adventures Of Kindaichi Kosuke This is a case of 'I listened to this because the cover blew me away'

The Mothers Of Invention - We're Only In It For The Money Everything is right there, sure it's a ripoff of Sgt Pepper, but does Sgt Pepper have Jimi Hendrix? Or Frank Zappa in a dress and pigtails? Didn't think so.

HONORABLE MENTION: Leonard Cohen - Songs Of Love And Hate I couldn't post this without the inclusion of this one. This album cover is probably the most simplistic one out of all of the one above, but it still blows me away every time for some reason. There's a certain depth to it and I lack the right words to explain why I adore it so much.

ask me my top 5/10 anything

[kimchisteww]

Finished reading the Kosuke Kindaichi (translated) novels I recently got my hands on and God I love this Jap chap. Set in wartime and post war Japan, the novels follow the detective adventures of Kosuke Kindaichi and Inspector Isokawa.

Kosuke unlike the other stalwarts in the field isn't very sophisticated: neither in appearance nor in his methods. Unlike other seasoned detectives who aren't drained of color at the sight of a dead body and have a 'i know it all' aura around them, Kosuke frequently gets shocked at the sight of a corpse and most certainly mishears, misinterprets and misjudges. One cannot really describe him as a funny little man (like Poirot) ; he isn't all that funny and he isn't little either. He first appears as a 25-26 years old man, 'shockingly indifferent to his appearance' in worn out hakama pants and kimono, with a head full of unkempt and disheveled hair in the Honjin murder case and his appearance remains somewhat similar even after coming back from the war. He stammers (slightly so) and has this most irritable habit of scratching his hair. Former drug addict, Kindaichi claims to be immune to female beauty (but proves himself wrong lol).

His cases, mostly set in wartime and post war Japan are,however, awfully gruesome. Almost all the murders that occur could have been prevented if not for the war. This probably shows how Japan's defeat in the second World War had been not only been a severe economic and political blow but it shook the country's existing social and cultural values and robbed it's people off their morale. With male heirs of the families serving in the war, Japan's existing family system was absolutely jeopardised. This is evident from the motives of the murders as well. The reasons for the murders are so unbelievably grotesque they remain unfathomable even after finishing the story. Anyways, what makes Kindaichi different from others? It's that even if he's able to catch the criminal he's very certainly unable to stop the crimes from happening. That shortcoming on his part probably makes his stories seem more real. Kindaichi is no hero, he's only a detective.

#KosukeKindaichi

#SeishiYokomizo

#Japanese

#detective

[dare-g]

The Adventures of Kosuke Kindaichi (1979)

[sytalice]

Some Nobuhiko Ōbayashi (1938 - 2020) movie shots.

- Hanagatami (Flower Basket)

- Hausu (House)

- Toki o kakeru shōjo (The Little Girl Who Conquered Time)

- Kindaichi Kosuke no boken (The Adventures of Kosuke Kindaichi)

[vinylyard]

Best Vinyl Re- Issues I bought in 2020 Metti Una Sera A Cena - Ennio Morricone I, Jonathan - Jonathan Richman Rid Of Me - PJ Harvey Koko - Koko (Fortuna Records) Wildflowers & all the rest - Tom Petty Funkin' In your mind - SUMY Electric Murder - Marcy Luarks The Adventures of Kindaichi Kosuke - The Mystery Kindaichi Band Pharoah - Pharoah Sanders #vinylreissues2020 #bestofreissues #vinyljunkie #instavinyl #vinylcollection #bestvinyl2020 https://www.instagram.com/p/CJlhG_eAMj-/?igshid=nflgmr3ehojm

[beatdisc]

Here's our #beatdisctop9 best sellers for October 2020! @idlesband - Ultra Mono @prince - Sign O The Times (reissue) @sufjan - The Ascension @deftones - Ohms The Mystery Kindaichi Band - The Adventures Of Kindaichi Kosuke (reissue) @rinasonline - Sawayama @mrspisss - Self-Surgery @adriannelenker - Songs & Instrumentals @radiohead - Kid A (reissue) #idles #ultramono #prince #signothetimes #sufjanstevens #theascension #deftones #ohms #themysterykindaichiband #rinasawayama #sawayama #mrspiss #adriannelenker #radiohead #kida @inertiavinyl @wewantsounds @rocket_au (at Beatdisc Records) https://www.instagram.com/p/CHCL01lhPqm/?igshid=416wqcwr12jl

[clemsfilmdiary]

The Worst of July

Worst Film: Stone Cold

           Runner Up: Cold Steel

Most Mediocre Film: Grizzly

Most Problematic Film: Heavy Traffic

Worst Performance: Sharon Stone in Cold Steel

Worst Action Hero: Brian Bosworth in Stone Cold

Worst Use of Music: Bronson

Most Aesthetically Irritating Film: Bronson

Most Overrated Film: The Void

Most Overlong Film (tied): The Adventures of Kosuke Kindaichi, Children Who Chase Lost Voices

Best Worst Film: Cold Steel

[beatdisc]

Another excellent Japanese re-issue drop in today, featuring the highly sought-after first 2 Nujabes albums (1st time on vinyl), some great 70's & 80's jazz, funk & electro re-issues from @wewantsounds, plus the full compliment of Ryo Fukui half-speed remasters from #WeReleaseJazz records. Nujabes - Metaphorical Music (2xLP) $110 Nujabes - Modal Soul (2xLP) $110 Logic System - Venus $55 Ryuichi Sakamoto - Thousand Knives Of $55 Hiroshi Sato - Orient $55 Yukihiro Takahashi - Saravah! $55 The Mystery Kindaichi Band - The Adventures Of Kindaichi Kosuke $50 Ryo Fukui - Scenery $48 Ryo Fukui - Mellow Dream $48 Ryo Fukui - A Letter From Slowboat $65 Ryo Fukui - In New York $65 @seba.jun #nujabes #ryuichisakamoto #yukihirotakahashi #themysterykindaichiband #ryofukui (at Beatdisc Records) https://www.instagram.com/p/CGo-XAPh75C/?igshid=1puln9ylim0hu

[clemsfilmdiary]

The Adventures of Kosuke Kindaichi / Kindaichi Kosuke no bōken (1979, Nobuhiko Ōbayashi)

金田一耕助の冒険　（大林宣彦）