Japan, as a country where reasoning culture and anime culture are very popular, the genre of "reasoning manga" has also developed extremely hotly, such as "QED Proof Ends", "Detective Academy Q", "Puppet Master Left Near", "Reasoning Trip", "Alien Invasion", etc. are very popular works, and reasoning, which was originally a niche field, has branched out, and there have been fighting wisdom ("Death Note"), gambling ("Gambling Apocalypse"), game competition ("Fraud Game", "Alice in the Land of the Dead") ) and other more vertical categories.
But even with so many excellent works, when we talk about Japanese mystery anime, there are only two that come to mind. One is the most well-known "Detective Conan", in the previous column, we introduced the origin of the character names in "Detective Conan", which respectively paid tribute to the masters in the history of reasoning ("Detective Conan" paid tribute to half of the reasoning world | suspense doubts). Coincidentally, another classic reasoning anime, "Shonen Kaneda Ichi Incident Book", can be known just by looking at the name, which also pays tribute to a name that cannot be avoided in the history of Japanese reasoning.
Compared with "Conan", which focuses on commercialization and all-age orientation, "Young Kaneda Ichi" adheres to a long-form intrinsic reasoning from beginning to end, with a gloomy atmosphere, a closed environment, a succession of tragic cases, and amazing criminal methods... All of these characteristics are the same as the writer it pays tribute to.
The protagonist, Ichi Kaneda, says "Bet on my grandfather's reputation" before each case is solved, and his grandfather is our protagonist today, the famous detective written by writer Masashi Yokomizu - Kazunosuke Kaneda.
01
Embark on the path of detective fiction under the influence of friends
On May 25, 1902, Masashi Yokomizu was born in Kobe, Hyogo Prefecture, the fourth child in the family. At the age of five, his mother died and his father remarried. In addition, his boyhood was a smooth one, he studied at a local school in Kobe before college, and when he was in Kobe No. 2 Junior High School, he met Detective Novel enthusiast Nishida Tokushige, and under the influence of his friends, Yokomizu Masashi began to become interested in detective novels.
Masashi Yokomizu (1902-1981) was a well-known Japanese speculative fictionian. In 1948, he won the first Japan Mystery Writers Association Award for "Honjin Murder Incident". In 1980, Kadokawa Shoten in Japan established the Yokomizu Masashi Speculative Fiction Award.
Unfortunately, Nishida Tokushige died prematurely due to illness, and the same interests and hobbies brought Yokomizu Masashi to know Tokushige's brother Nishida Masashige. Nishida's love for detective fiction is even greater than that of his younger brother, and he has even translated foreign detective novels himself. Incidentally, at that time, the world speculative literary world was in the golden age of short stories, and the short reasoning of Chesterton, Conan Doyle and others was all the rage, at that time, almost no one wrote long speculative fiction, and Japan's own speculative literature was still in the bud, only a few people such as Kuroiwa Tears had tried to create very early detective-like novel models such as "No Misery". Therefore, the most popular at that time was the translated foreign short detective novels, as well as the "reversal novels" adapted accordingly.
Even so, these works also became the nourishment of the young Yokomichi Masashi, especially the Nishida politicians, who were well-off and had many books in their families, and these books, including their friendship with Nishida politics, also influenced Yokomiya Masashi's creative style to a certain extent. The most obvious influence occurred when Masashi Yokomichi was eighteen years old, and he was instigated by Nishida Politics to write a short story.
The novel, titled "The Horror of April Fools' Day," tells the story of a murder that took place in a junior high school dormitory on April 1, when Morisha, the founder of New Youth magazine, praised the novel: "I think it's a painstaking novel, like the kind that can be seen in foreign student magazines, and the author is by no means a mediocre." ”
An interesting phenomenon is that to this day, most of the debut works of Japanese mystery writers have depicted cases that occurred in schools and dormitories, such as Jiro Katsuyama's "Rumors and Truths" and Ōshita Uda's "The Cigarette of Kaneguchi", and now there are more examples of Shin Motoge, such as Ayatsuji's "Tokakukan Incident", Mori Hiroshi's "All BecomeS", and Masahiro Imamura's "The Mystery of the Corpse Man Zhuang". Most of these writers embarked on the path of writing out of a strong love, and It was because of this that Masashi Yokomizu embarked on the path of a writer, but at that time he did not know what kind of masterpieces he would write in the future, nor did he know how speculative fiction would develop in the future in Japan.
Since then, Masashi Yokomizu has published a number of novels such as "The Secret of Crimson" in "New Youth", and these early studies have a strong interest in intrinsic reasoning and pursue the unexpectedness of endings.
In 1924, Masashi Yokomichi graduated from osaka pharmacy college (now osaka university, faculty of pharmacy) and subsequently opened a pharmacy at home. Most of his medical knowledge was learned in college, and he also learned a lot of medical thinking methods in college. Understanding medical knowledge and pharmacological knowledge is also very important for his future creations, and Benge reasoning initially pays attention to "rigor and fairness", compared to writers who have no relevant medical knowledge, Yokomizu Masashi is more confident in many tricks. It is worth mentioning that Agatha Christie, who is also a master of speculative fiction, also wrote such an unimaginable work as "The Strange Case of Stiles Manor" four years ago in 1920 because of her knowledge of pharmacy.
In the creation of speculative fiction, Yokomizu Masashi is also very smooth, he has a generous guide (Nishida politics), appreciate his own Bole (Morita Rain Village), if there is still something lacking, then it is better to have a comrade-in-arms who creates together and is like-minded.
This person soon appeared, and in 1925, through the "Detective Fun Meeting", he became acquainted with Edogawa Zabu, and in the same year, Edogawa Zabu published "Bifen Copper Coin" in "New Youth", officially announcing to the world that the original reasoning belonging to Japan had come.
Seeing that Chaobu published excellent works again and again, Yokomizu Masashi was also very excited, and even wrote a special article "Commenting on Edogawa's Chaotic Steps "Psychological Test"", praising his works, and the personal relationship between the two became better and better.
After having Edogawa Sasuke, a lifelong close friend, Masashi Yokomichi finally made up his mind to enter the literary world, and a year later, he was invited by Zabu to Tokyo and joined the Hirobunkan, japan's largest publishing house at the time. Another year later, at the age of 25, Masashi Yokomichi became the editor-in-chief of New Youth.
The New Youth, founded in 1920. (Image from The Japanese Wikipedia)
As mentioned earlier, the founder of New Youth is Mori Shimorimura, which was originally a comprehensive magazine and was an enlightenment magazine published by Bowenkan aimed at local youth. At that time, in order to expand its influence, Morisha Yumura deliberately increased the proportion of overseas detective novels translated, and the result was unexpectedly well received. After becoming famous, the positioning of "New Youth" gradually shifted to detective novels, and Morishaki Mura knew that it was not enough to introduce Western detective novels, he also needed to dig more original Japanese detective fiction writers.
Morishita Yumura originally favored the talent of Yokogou Masashi, coupled with the chaotic pace of the Edogawa in the middle, Yokomizu Masashi's inauguration can be said to have taken full advantage of the time, location, and people. Of course, it was also because of the addition of Masashi Yokomichi and the contributions of other writers at the time that "New Youth" was also achieved, and looking back at this magazine now, it almost single-handedly bred original Japanese reasoning.
During his tenure at New Youth, Yokomizu Masashi also published a number of short stories, but it is clear that after 1931, the style of his work began to change dramatically, from the early bright realism to the dark horror. Regarding the change in style, the Edogawa rampage, who is most familiar with him, concluded that he was influenced by Junichiro Tanizaki. For example, "Ghost Fire" and "Inside the Warehouse" have many similarities with Tanizaki Junichiro's "The Fear of a Teenager", "Gold and Silver", and "Cursed Opera", and Masashi Yokomizu also admitted in the article "Mr. Tanizaki and Japanese Detective Novels" that he was indeed deeply influenced by Junichiro Tanizaki.
It can be seen that Yokomizu Masashi is very sensitive at heart, and even a person who is very easily influenced, we look back, he likes detective novels and began to write detective novels, including serving in "New Youth" to vigorously promote the development of detective novels... All of them were influenced by the people they trusted the most.
In the following years, Yokogou Masashi, who had been smooth, finally began to encounter the waves of life, first he resigned as the editor of "New Youth" on the grounds of concentrating on writing, and then cultivated for three years due to tuberculosis, although his life was not as continuously on the rise as before, he still published many novels and never left the reader's attention. But soon, a bigger storm swept in, and in the face of this force, all normal life was shattered, and this storm was called war.
02
Really start to shine through long reasoning
During the war, the whole country of Japan fell into a state of madness, the people no longer need fairy tale detective novels, in 1940, Yokomichi Masashi has not received a manuscript, the Japanese government once banned the publication of detective novels, at this time he had no livelihood, and his belongings were lost a lot because of illness, which can be said to be the most difficult period.
Fortunately, Masashi Yokomichi not only survived the most difficult years, but also used this time to recuperate and re-read detective novels. At that time, the world of speculative literature had entered the "Golden Age", and excellent long-form detective novels continued to emerge, and it was during this time that Yokozumi Masashi saw the works of Agatha Christie, Ellery Quinn, Van Dyne and others, among which the most fascinated him was john Dixon Carr, the king of the Chamber of Secrets. He drew a lot of nourishment from Carr's work, and the idea of a new long speculative novel was born in his mind during this time.
At the end of the war, Japan was gradually defeated, and Masashi Yokomichi was evacuated to Okayama Prefecture, where he saw the daily life of the rural people. Extremely strong sense of homogeneity, caution and distrust of strangers, a sense of separation between the poor and the fallen Chinese... These were images he hadn't seen in Tokyo, and he knew that this was the daily routine of the vast majority of ordinary people in Japan. Tanizaki's seductive horror suddenly stopped appealing to him, and he now wanted to write more about ordinary people living in rural Japan.
"Kaneda Ichi Detective Collection" (all 10 volumes), [Japanese] Yokogou Masashi, translated by Yu Zhuangsun Yatian et al., New Classic | South Seas Publishing Company October 2021 edition. The 10 volumes are: "Prison Gate Island", "Honjin Murder Incident", "InuYasha Family", "Devil's Colorful Ball Song", "Eight Tombs Village", "The Devil Blows the Flute", "Masquerade Ball", "Three Heads Of the Tower", "Queen Bee", "Night Walk".
In 1946, the new year after the end of the war, Masashi Yokomichi began serializing "Honjin Killing Incident" in Gem magazine, and in May of the same year, he serialized "Butterfly Killing Incident" in Rock magazine, and the two books were created almost simultaneously, but this did not affect the quality of the work in the slightest, because he had accumulated too much to express.
Regarding which of "Butterfly Murder" or "Honjin Murder" was better, many people at that time had different opinions, and Ango Sakaguchi praised "Butterfly Murder" in "Detective Fiction", considering it a rare masterpiece. Admittedly, in terms of the degree of completion of the work, "Butterfly" is obviously more mature, and it can better reflect the level of a detective writer with rich reading experience and writing skills. But now, decades later, when we look back at these two works, the answer is obviously easy to see — "Honjin Killings" is a landmark work.
In this long debut novel, Yokomizu Masashi adopts the "secret room trick" that Karl excels at, and applies it perfectly to Japanese Japanese architecture, and because it is a long story, he can use more ink to depict the real people he saw in the war. The strong Showa realistic wind coupled with the secret room trick of romantic fantasy made "Honjin Murder Incident" quickly popular and achieved an overwhelming success.
In this novel, Masashi Yokomizu portrays Kazunosuke Kaneda as a famous detective. He used a lot of ink to explain his appearance, dress and origin. "This man was about twenty-five or six years old, fair-skinned, slightly shorter than medium, and ordinary-looking. He wears a feathered kimono with a broken white dot pattern and pinstriped trousers. Haori and the kimono are crumpled, under the loose trousers, a pair of blue shoes and socks have been badly worn, the toes seem to be worn out of the upper, the heel of the clogs is almost smoothed out, the hat is deformed... In short, compared with the young people at that time, it seemed neither trim nor listless. He was Kazunosuke Kaneda, who had been sent by Kubo Ginzo by telegram. "There is a fairly thick accent, and there is also a bit of stuttering, like people in the Northeast or Hokkaido area."
We can see from Kazunosuke Kaneda that he has obvious traditional colors and distinct characteristics of the times. Kazunosuke Kaneda's dress is very traditional. Although he has also traveled to the sea to stay in the sea, he has always retained the habit of wearing kimono. I wear kimonos and clogs for many years. It is said that Kaneda Kazunosuke's dress is a reference to the image of Masashi Yokomichi himself in the "New Youth" period, which shows how untrimmed Yokomichi Masashi was at that time.
Masashi Yokomizu portrayed Kazunosuke Kaneda in Honjin Murder, the main purpose of which is that in Benge's speculative novels, there needs to be a "character born to solve the puzzle", which can be said to have the attributes of a tool man. In 1947, Yokomizu Masashi began serializing "Prison Gate Island" on "Jewels", which was a more authentic work of reasoning, because he was too lazy to create a "character born to solve the mystery", he had to ask Kaneda Kazuko to help out the horse again.
Stills from the movie Prison Gate Island (2016).
If "Honjin Murders" is a perfect fusion of Carl's "secret room trickery" and Japanese culture, then "Prison Gate Island" is a nourishment from two other masters. Van Dyne's "The Bishop's Murder" and Agatha Christie's "No One Survives" both adopt the "nursery rhyme killing" model, which is also integrated into Japanese culture by Masashi Yokomizu, and haiku in Prison Gate Island, each of which corresponds to a murder. This form was further developed in the later "Devil's Colorful Ball Song", and Yokomizu Masashi created a "Ghost Shou Village Handball Song" for the novel, which filled the mysterious atmosphere.
In addition, another classic, "Eight Tombs Village", is not so original, and its purpose is more inclined to adventure and family feuds, but the motivation aspect introduces real cases (The Mutsuo Toei Tumura case), combining real cases with detective novels, perhaps influenced by Agatha Christie's "Murder on the Orient Express".
It can be seen that the post-war Yokogou Masashi really began to shine through long-form reasoning, and these works are of high standard and balanced quality, even in the history of world reasoning, compared with the "Big Three" of the Golden Age of Europe and the United States, not to mention that in Japan at that time, it was absolutely unattainable.
A movie poster of the same name based on Eight Graves Village.
Among them, in addition to the solidity and advancement of the core of Benge, the most valuable thing is that only Shoshi Yokogou can write such a realistic and vivid Japanese countryside, the horror and darkness around the backward vast fields and isolated deep mountain old houses, and of course, there are the corresponding simple emotions and the brilliance of human nature that bursts out in a desperate situation. Just like in the boundless dark corridor underground of "Eight Tombs Village", there are still brilliant scenes like stalactite caves, and there are also the fires of love between the two of them.
Unconsciously, Kazunosuke Kaneda has appeared in 77 works and has become the absolute male protagonist of Masashi Yokomizu. Kazunosuke Kaneda has all the characteristics of a famous detective, but he is not as tall and unattainable as other famous detectives, more like an ordinary person, he will stutter when he is nervous, he usually makes some embarrassing moves, and his dress is also the most Japanese.
In addition to appearance and image, the development of Kazunosuke Kaneda himself is also in line with the spiritual development of a generation of Japanese. After the Meiji Restoration, Japan woke up from feudal obscurity and began to learn all advanced knowledge from the West. The rural population flocked to the cities, education was popularized, and the number of Japanese studying abroad increased greatly, and the teenager Kazunosuke Kaneda was one of them. After that, Japan's conceit, unable to suppress its expansion ambitions, and eventually its faith collapsed, leaving ruins in the land and the psychology of the people, which is the stage where Kazunosuke Kaneda is active as a detective, he wanders on the edge of the wrong society, unveils the mask of hypocrisy again and again, stirs up the veil of ignorance, cracks the deceptive tricks under the seemingly incomprehensible divine power, saves ordinary people, and returns to a normal and peaceful life.
In 2012, the Asahi Shimbun launched a "Detective in My Mind" investigation, and Kazunosuke Kaneda had the highest number of votes in the minds of all Japanese readers. He is loved by Japanese readers not only because of his repeated case solving, but also because he is the good partner that everyone expects to see the truth of life.
In 1980, Kadokawa Shoten presided over the establishment of the Long Speculative Fiction Award, which was dedicated to encouraging newcomers, called the Yokogou Masashi Award. On December 28 of the following year, Henggou Masashi died of illness at his apartment at the age of 79.
Not long ago, the new classic published a set of "Kaneda Ichi Detective Collection", this set of works is Yokogou Masashi himself selected a series of ten masterpieces of Kaneda, namely "Prison Gate Island", "Honjin Killing Incident", "Inuyasha Family", "Devil's Colorful Ball Song", "Eight Tombs Village", "Devil Blowing Flute", "Masquerade Ball", "Three Heads Tower", "Queen Bee", and "Night Walk". Kaneda has a series of works, if you want to know more about this legendary detective, you may wish to start with this set of books.
The author | Lu Yehua
Edited | Miyako Shin Chan
Proofreader | Liu Baoqing