Influence of the Canon on Japanese Detective Stories

In the late nineteenth century, a lot of western products and systems were introduced to Japan, which had been living under Samurai traditions. Japanese society was dramatically modernized and rapidly westernized. The detective story is one example of the modern Western cultural items introduced to Japan.

The first translation of a detective story into Japanese was “Waran Biseiroku,” translated by Kanda Kohei in 1861. It was taken from a Dutch book called “Belangrijke Tafereelen uit de Geschiedenis der Lijfstra ffelijke Regtsplegling” by Jan Bastiaan Chritemeijer, published in 1821. The translation was not widely published, however, and the “boom” of western detective did not begin until the translations of Kuroiwa Ruikou (1862-1920). Kuroiwa was a newspaper editor and translated dime novels for his newspapers. His first translation was Hugh Conway’s Dark Days in 1888, but he translated mainly French works, including fifteen novels of Fortune Du Boisgobey (1824-1891), the French writer of police stories, four of Emile Gaboriau, and two of William Wilkie Collins. Kuroiwa’s great success influenced other newspaper editors, who also began to print detective stories. One of them was Mizuta Nanyougaishi, whose translation series, “Gushigino Tantei” (“Miracle Detective”), was published on Chuo Shinbun, in 1899. It is one of the earliest translations of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.

Kuroiwa translated nearly thirty detective stories in about five or six years, but then he lost interest and turned to romantic novels. After that, the detective story boom was over. But publishers did not stop printing translations of western detective stories, and several translations of Sherlock Holmes appeared. These translations were only published in small quantities, and were hard to find. Those who favored detective stories were an educated class of people, who could read the original English books.

One of the most famous Japanese novelists, who wrote several detective stories in his youth, was Tanizaki Junichiro (1886-1965). Tanizaki mentioned Sherlock Holmes and Watson in his stories “Kin to Gin” (“Gold and Silver,” 1918) or “Hakuchu Kigo” (“Devilish Words at High Noon,” 1918). He had studied English literature in college, and it is believed that he read Poe and Doyle in the original form.

This also applied to Edogawa Rampo (1894-1965), who is known as the “Father of the Japanese Detective Story.” His first short story, “Nisen Douka” (“Two Cent Copper,” 1923) is said to be the first modern Japanese detective story. For nearly fifty years, he published many “puzzle” short stories, and later, thriller novels and criticisms. He founded The Japanese Society of Detective Writers, and was the first president. He also initiated the “Edogawa Rampo Award” for new mystery writers. It is said even today that this award is a most honorable start for young mystery writers.

Edogawa wrote in a private note (published later as “Kitan,” in Extraordinaries, 1919) of his experience with Sherlock Holmes stories. Of course, Edogawa read Japanese translations, but he was not satisfied with them. He also bought English editions and The Strand Magazine, and in his note, he compared them with old translations. His private translations of “The Gloria Scott,” “The Dancing Men,” and “The Three Students” still remain.

In Edogawa’s detective stories, one influence of the Sherlock Holmes series is Edogawa’s great detective named Akechi Kogoro. He is a private detective deeply trusted by police officers, like Holmes. In his early adventures, the storyteller is a nameless “I.” This character may be Edogawa himself. There is no character comparable to Dr. Watson, and the storyteller was more like the teller of Poe’s Dupin tales. Edogawa himself often confessed that the writer who influenced him most was Edgar Allan Poe, and his pen name (his real name was Hirai Taro) was taken from this famous American writer.

The clearest influence of Doyle on Edogawa’s work is in his juvenile detective series. Akechi is its hero, but there is another group of heroes, the “Boy Detectives!” Their captain is Kobayashi Yoshio, Akechi’s teenage assistant, and all the members of the group are boys in their early teens. Of course, the group is a reflection of the Baker Street irregulars. However, Edogawa changed one point: The Irregulars were street urchins, but members of the Boy Detectives were boys from decent homes who could ask their parents without hesitation to buy books. Readers of these books could easily identify with the Boy Detectives, and it was the fashion for boys to play the “Detective Game.” The series won great success, and is still available in bookshops today.

As Edogawa did, early Japanese detective story lovers (Edogawa called them “Tanteishousetsu no Oni,” or “demons of detective stories”) read the Canon in English. Most of them belonged to the educated middle class. Okamoto Kido (1872-1939), who created “Hanshichi Torimonochou” (“The Casebook of Hanshichi”), was a playwright of Kabuki. “Torimonochou” is another genre of the Japanese detective story, a series of short detective stories situated in the world of the Samurai. Okamoto had a deep knowledge of English literature, and it is said that he was the best customer of the Maruzen foreign bookshop of Tokyo. He himself wrote that he bought The Strand Magazine, and read the Canon in English.

Another famous “Torimonochou” writer, Nomura Kodo (1882-1963), when he was a high school student, asked his teacher of English to use the Canon as a textbook. Later, Nomura studied law at Tokyo Imperial University and became a director of the Houchi Shinbun Newspaper.

The largest influence of the Canon on Japanese detective stories is the use of a “Dr. Watson” as a companion of the great detective. Conversations between the detective and his friend make a good way to explain what is going on to readers. The device is a brilliant creation, and most detective writers followed it. For Akechi Kogoro of Edogawa Rampo’s works, young Kobayashi Yoshio is his good assistant, who acts as “Dr. Watson” or “Wiggins” in Edogawa’s novels for adult readers. Yokomizo Seishi (1902-1981) created his detective Kindaichi Kosuke, accompanied by Inspector Todoroki or Inspector Isokawa. Yokomizo’s other detectives, Yuri Rintaro and Mitsugi Shunsuke, might be influenced by Jacques Futrelle’s Professor Van Dusen, “The Thinking Machine” -- Mitsugi is a newspaperman, as is Hutchinson Hatch, who reported Professor Van Dusen’s cases.

The clearest examples are those of the “Torimonocho” genre. Detectives in “Torimonocho” are usually called “Okappiki” or “Goyoukiki,” private assistants of “Doshin” official inspector samurais. The “Goyoukiki” worked as policemen, but because they were not samurais, they could not be given official positions. “Goyoukiki” also had their assistants, called “Shitappiki,” and they acted as “Dr. Watson” in the “Torimonocho” stories.

The most famous team of “Okappiki and Shitappiki” would be Heiji and Hachigoro, created by Nomura Kodo. His series “Zenigata Heiji Torimonohikae” is the longest and the most famous “Torimonocho” series ever published in Japan. He wrote 383 short stories and novels over 27 years, and the series was broadcast on television in 888 episodes using the same actors, Okawa Hashizo (Heiji) and Hayashiya Chinpei (Hachigoro).

At the beginning of most of these stories, Hachigoro visits Heiji’s house and tells Heiji about rumors or new cases. One is reminded of the beginning of “The Blue Carbuncle,” in which Dr. Watson visited 221B. Hachigoro’s reporting news compared to Holmes always asking Watson to read the newspaper aloud. This device begins the cases easily and effectively for readers. (In this connection I may add that Japanese Prime Minister Yoshida Shigeru said he was a fan of the Zenigata Heiji series. His father-in-law, Count Makino Shinken, was one of the founding members of the Baritsu Chapter of Tokyo, the first Sherlockian society in Japan.)

In the late 1950s, a drastic change occurred in Japanese mystery writing. The era of “the great detective” ended. Matsumoto Seicho (1909-1992) and others of the new generation of mystery writers began new “realistic mysteries.” In their novels, ordinary policemen or newspapermen acted as the investigators. They had no special talents, but their consistent hard work solved cases. That contrasted with old traditional mysteries and Sherlock Holmes. Traditional private detectives were criticized as “puppets” or “paper dolls,” and they rapidly disappeared.

However, such “realistic mysteries” were inherently limited, with no puzzles or detections. By the 1970s, a revival of puzzle mysteries and “great detectives” occurred. There was, naturally, a demand from readers who had only had the chance to read translations of such mysteries. Geneijou magazine published reprints of traditional pre-World War II puzzle mysteries. Yokomizo Seishi’s writing also became popular - his paperbacks selling more than a million copies - and many puzzle or “great detective” films were made.

“Great detectives” have returned to Japanese mystery writing. Under such conditions, The Japan Sherlock Holmes Club was constituted in 1978. The time of the “Great Detective” has come again.

Now in Japan, the genre known as “mystery” has a different scope than the American or British term. It includes horror novels, psychological thrillers, spy novels, love and romance tales, and science fiction. In fact, it may be translated most accurately as “fiction to read for pleasure.” The “detective story” is just a part of the “mystery” genre. However, there is still a group of puzzle novels, and in 2000, The Puzzle Mystery Writer’s Society was founded. Thus, the tradition of the “great detective” and unsolved puzzle stories still survives.

(Japan and Sherlock Holmes, The Baker Street Irregulars, 2004)