The Honjin Murders

Although we here at the blog have heard about Seishi Yokomizo for several years (albeit, through the influence of detective anime and manga), we have finally sat down and read one of the few translated works by the active writer of Kosuke Kindaichi tales. The Honjin Murders reads like a detective story or locked room murder mystery for aficionados and obsessive fans of detective fiction. And this is a good thing, as it establishes connections between Japanese and classic Western mystery novels and will definitely appeal to Western readers who are fans of the genre. 

Yet it remains a very Japanese tale set in 1937, featuring a rural Japanese setting where lineage, status, and some of the old social relations that predated the enormous postwar changes wrought by the Japanese defeat in World War II. While we were somewhat disappointed by the reveal of the murder and their accomplice, the novel's satisfactory use of suspense, red herrings, and social commentary make for an entertaining read. Kosuke Kindaichi himself is central to this, although introduced somewhat late into the tale and often seen through the perspective of the mystery writer narrator or the "notes" of a local doctor. Kindaichi, with his disheveled hair, stammer, and unkempt appearance is the underdog we can all root for. He even lived in California for some years, switching his drug addiction to solving crimes as a superior thrill. 

While some detective fiction, particularly of that era, can be often conservative, the fall of the Ichiyanagi family after the ghastly double murder here, seems an appropriate end for a family lineage rooted in a "feudal" and unequal social relations. Once the proud owners of an inn serving daimyo in the feudal era, the Ichiyanagis saw an imminent decline of their status in the Meiji era, and switched to becoming wealthy landowners by buying up land and exploiting the villagers as tenant farmers. The crux of the conflict preceding the killings is the marriage of Ichiyanagi's head, Kenzo, to Katsuko, the daughter and niece of tenant farmers who became prosperous farmers running their own orchard. Due to her family's lack of an established and respectable lineage, the Ichiyanagi household initially opposed the marriage, so delicate questions of class, status, and sexual relations pervade this "inappropriate" marriage in 1930s Japan. Just a decade later, when our narrator is recounting the events of the novel, one sees exactly how this social world was in its period of decline, less relevant to a postwar Japan and more social mobility.