Sherlock Holmes in Japan

Japan is a Maple-White Land of Sherlockiana. Nobody knows even of its existence. But there are more than one thousand Sherlockians and many papers and books, which include many that have been out-of-print in the West for many years.

There is a cliff between your countries and mine. That is a language cliff, which is very high and dangerous. If you want to get over it alone, you need to make even more of an effort than that of Professor Challenger. This is a rope for you. I hope it helps your climbing.

First of all, I must tell you a history of Sherlockiana in Japan.

The first translation of the Canon was in 1894. It was “The Man with the Twisted Lip” in the magazine Nihonjin. You may be surprised at this fact. At that time, our ancestors tried at western ways so hard in order to keep our independence. Most Asian countries were under the reign of western Empires except Thailand, China and Japan. Our ancestors decided to make Japan as “rich and strong”. They followed Germany in establishing an army and educating children. They also followed the British style of economy, navy and culture. It had been believed for a long time that British products were always first class.

In 1916, Adventures was translated. In 1929, the entire Canon except His Last Bow was translated into Japanese. From 1931 to 1932, most of works of Doyle were translated in eight volumes. Nobuhara Ken translated the Canon by himself in 1951. This translation is the most well read now.

You can find several Japanese names in the member list of The Sherlock Holmes Society of London. The first Japanese Sherlockian was the late Dr. Naganuma Kohki. He was the first Japanese member of The Baker Street Irregulars and published nine Sherlockiana books.

The first Japanese Sherlockian society “The Baritsu Chapter” was established in 1948. The members were Mr Richard Hughes, Count Makino, Dr Naganuma and some other Japanese and Western people. The society donated a plate to The Criterion Bar of London which was stolen a long time ago. This society had only one meeting. After that, it moved to Hong Kong. The society and Mr. Hughes’s name are found in De Waal’s The World Bibliography of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson as a Hong Kong society.

In 1977, Dr. Kobayashi Tsukasa and his wife Mrs. Higashiyama Akane established The Japan Sherlock Holmes Club. Now its members are more than one thousand. It must be one of the largest Sherlockian societies in the world.

This society publishes the news letter “The Baker Street News” ten times a year, and the magazine The World of Holmes. Regrettably, all articles are written in Japanese.

Japanese Sherlockians inclinations are interesting. As we had no Victorian times in our history, it is important to know how people lived in this time. There are papers with titles like “English Cooking”, “Victorian Gentlemen’s Hats”, “Victorian Maps” etc. For British Sherlockians, these are easy matters. It is sufficient to only ask their grandparents. At one meeting which I attended, there was an argument on Holmes’ washroom. No one knows where and how it was.

Another interest of Japanese Sherlockians is writing parodies. So many parodies are published in private Sherlockian magazines. Most of writers are young beginners. It is sad that there are only a few stories which are attractive enough to translate and show you.

Sherlockian collections are fun for us, too. It is not popular to collect books in English, because of their lack of knowledge of English. The most famous collector’s items are nine Dr. Naganuma books. They are not easy to find, and are expensive. If you want one, you need twenty pounds per Dr Naganuma book. Though you can buy two good Sherlockiana books in English with this, as there are not many Sherlockians who can understand English, they cannot have the Agra treasure.

It is believed in Japan, that Sherlockian papers like “Dr Watson was a woman” or “Who was the king of Bohemia?” are relics of the past. It was Dr Kobayashi who advocated it first. He was a psychiatrist and translated Sam Rosenberg’s Naked is the Best Disguise in 1982. I think his tastes lay in such psychiatric or psychological works, literary studies and studies of Victorian era.

But I think this is not true. There are such books as You Know my Method by Sebeok, and The Sign of Three by Eco & Sebeok. On the other hand, there are also much more “classic” studies published. It is clear Eco and Sebeok’s works are not Sherlockiana. They used Holmes as material for their study. Japanese Sherlockians need Victorian era studies because of our lack of knowledge. These two are not Sherlockiana at all.

As we have only ten or fifteen years history of Sherlockiana excepting the late Dr. Naganuma, several interesting books which are out of print in the West are now sold in Japan.

It was Sherlock Holmes; a Biography of the World’s First Consulting Detective by W. S. Baring-Gould which Dr. and Mrs. Kobayashi translated and used to call together Japanese Sherlockians. This book is available as a paperback edition now.

After that, many good books were translated into Japanese.

1962 THE LIFE OF SIR ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE by John Dickson Carr

1973 PROFILE BY GASLIGHT by Edgar W. Smith

1975 THE SEVEN-PER-CENT SOLUTION by Nicholas Meyer

1978 THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF SHERLOCKIANA by Jack Tracy

1980 SEVENTEEN STEPS TO 221B by James Edward Holroyd (paperback now available)

1982 THE SHERLOCK HOLMES COOKBOOK by Fanny Cradock

1982-83 THE ANNOTATED SHERLOCK HOLMES (available in 21 volumes)

1983 CONAN DOYLE by Ronald Pearsall (paperback now available)

1984 CONAN DOYLE by Julian Symons

1987 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF SHERLOCK HOLMES by Vincent Starrett

1989 THE NEW ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES by M. H. Greenberg (paperback now available)

These are only a sample.

The most incredible translation is THE MISADVENTURES OF SHERLICK HOLMES edited by Ellery Queen. It is not a joke. It was published in 1983-84 in two volume paperbacks by Hayakawa Shobo Co. I do not know why Hayakawa could publish it. But Japan is the only country where this book is available now.

In addition, original books are also published. Most of them are written by Dr. and Mrs. Kobayashi. Another member of The Baker Street Irregulars, Mr. Tanaka Kiyoshi published a book for beginners. Two other books are anthologies by members of JSHC.

You might wonder why there are so many Sherlockians in these tiny islands in the Far East. Some British Sherlockians asked me this question when I visited their home country. Always, I told them two answers.

One is, as I wrote in this article, in Sherlock’s time our country changed very much to be a modern nation. Our teacher was Germany and Britain. We learned their languages, industries and their ways of life. The Canon reminds us our old school days.

The other is that there are many points which resemble modern Japan. Now Japan, like Victorian Britain, is one of the most developed countries which many people visit. The Emperor of the time’s reign was over sixty years. We can find ourselves in the Canon.

Fifty years ago, when the Baker Street Irregulars gathered, America resembled Victorian London. And now Japan does. Fifty years later, there might be millions of Sherlockians in China!

If you are interested in Sherlockiana in Japan, I am pleased. If you want to know a new world of Sherlockiana, that is not German, nor French, you need to study Japanese. Holmes says, “What one man can invent another can discover”.

(The Nezire Zanmai vol.1, 1991)