In 1926, the famous mystery writer and critic Saburo Koga first proposed the concepts of "benge" and "declension" in response to these two very different styles. He believes that speculative fiction that adheres to the core and theme of puzzle solving is called "pure speculative fiction", and later defines this pure novel as "the original character"; while those "novels dominated by the unexpectedness of perverted psychology and bizarre mysteries" are "declension". After the end of World War II, the "Benge" novel gradually reared its head, and finally occupied the Japanese market with an overwhelming advantage, creating a brilliant era. And the initiator of this era is the protagonist of this section: Yokogou Masashi.
Masashi Yokogou was born on May 25, 1902 in Higashikawasaki, Kobe City. Compared to the chaotic pace of the Edogawa River, Yokomizu Masashi's experience is much simpler and smoother. It was only at the age of 29 that Harubu published "Two Cents of Copper Coin", and Yokomichi Masashi's debut novel "Scary April Fool's Day" won the first prize in the "New Youth" magazine essay contest in 1921. Later, he won the second and third prizes of the essay contest with "Crimson Secret" and "A Dagger", and the starting point was staggering. Although the timing and starting point of Yokomizu Masashi's debut are better than those of the Edogawa Rampage, at least until 1945, his achievements could not be compared with the Chaotic Pace. Like almost all Japanese mystery writers, Masashi Yokomizu fell into the aura of chaos and did not step out of his own style.
In 1946, Masashi Yokomizu published two long speculative novels in a row, namely the famous "Honjin Killing Incident" and "Butterfly Killing Incident". The "transfiguration" atmosphere before these two works changed the henggou is a "original lattice" reasoning that is too pure to be pure. More importantly, both in length and content, these two works push the Japanese "Benge" reasoning to a whole new height. People exclaimed: "Japanese writers have finally smoothed out the gap between them and European and American detective novels for thirty or forty years!" Since then, the "Benge" reasoning has replaced the "declension" in one fell swoop and become the absolute mainstream of post-war Japanese speculative literature.
In the secret room murder case of "Honjin Murder Incident", the great detective Kazuno kosuke Kaneda made his first appearance. The detective was about thirty-five or six years old, small and withered, and his clothes always looked old and dirty. Because of his long-term smoking, Kazusuke Kaneda's fingers and teeth are particularly yellow. He was not very good at dealing with strangers, often blushing, always unconsciously scratching his already messy hair like a bird's nest, and talking upside down with only one exception, that is, when he exposed the murderer's tricks and made him invisible. Kazusuke Kaneda is one of the most well-known detectives in Japanese mystery works, and more than half a century later, the protagonist of the manga, Kazusuke Kaneda, is actually proud of being the "grandson of Kosuke". The success of "Honjin Killing Incident" gave Yokomizu Masashi great confidence and motivation. With Kazunosuke Kaneda as the protagonist, he has created more than 80 series of works, of which nearly 2/3 are long stories. These works are produced in great quality, and many of them will be slightly heard by even readers who do not know much about speculative fiction.
If Edogawa Wasagi was the spiritual leader of Japan's speculative literary scene, then Masashi Yokomizu was undoubtedly the supreme consul. He established the supremacy of "Benge" reasoning with practical actions, and the puzzle-solving line he advocated dominated the Japanese speculative literary world until it was broken by Matsumoto Kiyoharu in 1957. It is no exaggeration to say that the mystery writers who emerged throughout the gem period were all "disciples" of Masashi Yokogou, including masters such as Takagi Binmitsu, Takao Tsuchiya, Tetsuya Kakegawa, and Kazuo Shimada. It can be seen from this how insurmountable the history of Yokogou is.