A Japanese Mystery

Japanese literature, it cannot be denied, is one of the most influential and diverse literatures in the world. It has a long and rich tradition of producing top-notch writers like Nobel laureates in literature Yasunari Kawabata (1968), Kenzaburō Ōe (1994), and Kazuo Ishiguro (2017). They are just the tip of the iceberg as Japan has produced highly heralded writers. Even in the contemporary, Japanese writers are among the most recognized and their works are among the most critically acclaimed. All throughout history, the fine print of Japanese literature is prevalent. One of the earliest published novels, The Tale of Genji, was written by Lady Murasaki Shikibu, a lady-in-waiting during the Heian period (794-1185). Japanese literature has also produced the haiku and the I-novel, among its many contributions to world literature.

What makes Japanese literature even more fascinating is the diversity that exists underneath its vast umbrella. Japanese writers have written slice-of-life, coming-of-age, autobiographical, and political novels. They have also produced historical, scientific, literary, and speculative fiction works. There are works of magical realism that have been further propelled by the works of Haruki Murakami. Japanese literature is a smorgasbord that can suit everyone’s taste. Japanese writers are also renowned for their works of mystery and suspense fiction. Who has not heard of the slick young detective Conan Edogawa of the popular anime Detective Conan? His name is a combination of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle of Sherlock Holmes fame and Edogawa Ranpo, a Japanese author credited for pioneering the development of Japanese thriller and mystery fiction.

Another writer renowned for popularizing detective fiction in Japan is Seichō Matsumoto. Born Kiyoharu Matsumoto, he has a literary career that spanned several decades and produced several novels. Among the novels he wrote was Inspector Imanishi Investigates. It was originally published in serial form in the Japanese newspaper Yomiuri Shimbun between 1960 and 1961 under the title 砂の器 (Suna no Utsuwa). Set in the 1960s, the story opens, unsurprisingly, with a death; Matsumoto provides no preamble as he drives the readers immediately into the heat of the action. On the tracks of the Kamata Railroad Yard, an old man was found lifeless early one morning. All indicators point to foul play. However, the policemen had very little to go on. Pinning down the dead man’s identity proved to be a challenge, especially as his face was badly battered.

“We go on various business trips like this. And afterward, rather than the scenery of probalems I might have encountered what I remember is the food. Our expense allowance is so small we can only afford rice with curry, or some meat on top of a bowl of rice, food you can get anywhere. Yet the flavoring is always different. It’s the taste of each location that I remember first.”

~ Seichō Matsumoto, Inspector Imanishi Investigates

The story then veers away from trains and timetables as it slowly develops into a labyrinthine search for truth. With little to build on, the novel’s main protagonist enters. With the investigation team disbanded, the investigation of the brutal murder fell into the hands of the eponymous Inspector Imanishi Eitaro of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police. Assisting the forty-five-year-old senior investigator on the case was junior detective Yoshimura. Nobody in the vicinity knew. However, they noted that he was spotted drinking (cheap) whiskey with a younger man at a nearby bar a couple of hours before he met his unfortunate end. The waitresses overheard a half-line conversation that featured the word “Kameda”. They also noted that the young man had a distinct regional accent while the victim spoke in a Tohoku – the northern region of Japan, just below Hokkaido – accent.

However, the scant pieces of evidence did little to discourage Inspector Imanishi. Building on what little he had, he jetted across the country, from the Kanto region where Tokyo is located to the Kansai and Tohoku regions, to understand the crime, identify the murdered man, and ultimately unmask the person behind his death. Because of the lack of evidence, the investigation was a slow and painstaking process. It was exacerbated by the lack of technology. Inquiries were performed through letters. Movement across the country is mainly through local trains. This was, after all, the 1960s. The case was further hampered by documents destroyed during the Second World War. The lack of motive for the crime was also glaring. It seemed that the investigation was inevitably headed toward a dead end.

But just when it felt like they were about to hit another snag, the pieces started to come together. It took time but Inspector Imanishi’s hard work, persistence, and diligence started paying dividends. His dogged approach allowed him to finally know who the dead man was. His digging made him learn that the victim was a retired policeman, Miki Ken’ichi. The mystery surrounding his death grew even deeper when it was learned that his record was spick and span and that he was well-respected within his circles. However, this was just the starting point as Inspector Imanishi still had no iota about who the perpetrator was. Will he allow the case to turn cold? He had his suspicions as to who the murderer was but he can’t prove anything, yet.

A new can of worms was opened when Detective Yoshimura’s and Inspector Imanishi’s sleuthing led them to an avant-garde group of young artists, architects, critics, and composers. Among this group are the young men Sekigawa Shigeo and Waga Eiryo. Along with their lovers Emiko and Sachiko, they immediately grabbed the attention of Inspector Imanishi. Meanwhile, a slew of mysterious deaths started to cloud the investigation. Some of these deaths were natural but there were some with questionable circumstances. Are these mere coincidences? Or are they somehow connected? If they are connected, what threads connect them? As various elements muddle the case, will Inspector Imanishi be able to get to the bottom of the case?

“Forever, he says. The futility of this love tastes empty and feels like grains of sand slipping through my fingers. At night, despair haunts my dreams. And yet I must be strong. I must believe in him. I must protect this lonely love. I must persuade myself to be content with this loneliness, to find happiness within it. I must cling to this hopeless thing. This love demands sacrifices of me. I must feel the joy of a martyr as I make sacrifices.”

~ Seichō Matsumoto, Inspector Imanishi Investigates

What ensued was a classic police procedural rather than a crime thriller. The novel captured the slow and painstaking progress of police work. This entailed Inspector Imanishi chasing the wrong leads for most of the story. But it was the book’s natural fixation that was among its achievements. The more that Inspector Imanishi digs into the case, the more information he uncovers. However, not everything was as it seemed. There was a steady accumulation of information that kept the readers on the edge of their seats. Red herrings and fake leads threw him off course. But Inspector Imanishi is relentless. He is driven. He is resolute. This was commendable on Matsumoto’s part as he managed to keep the readers engaged. In true mystery novel fashion, Matsumoto made the readers part of the story as they and Inspector Imanishi are solving the riddle together.

What makes the novel distinct from the typical police procedural are the cultural touchstones. Japanese culture was deftly and vividly captured by Matsumoto, including their eating habits and the different flavors from each region. There was an evocative sense of place and time, a nod to Matsumoto’s skills as a writer. As Inspector Imanishi ventures away from Tokyo and into the Japanese countryside, the dichotomies between the different regions of Japan are painted by Matsumoto. There were even discourses on these differences. Regional accents, for instance, were contentious because they played a seminal role in the investigation. The Japanese courtesy was also prevalent in the conversations between the characters, even between the policemen and the criminals. Further, the story subtly confronted the traditional role of women.

The intersection of Western and Oriental cultures and ideas was captured in the novel. The dichotomies between cultures were also underscored in the story. For one, Inspector Imanishi operates on his own. He also went above and beyond the call of duty, spending his own money and working on his personal time. In a Western setup, his efforts would have been viewed as insubordination. This is in contrast to how Japanese society views it. They find it commendable. Further, there were no tensions between Inspector Imanishi and his superiors as he reported to them all his progress and any vital piece of evidence that he uncovered. This, somehow, makes him a conventional detective.

“Not really. I knew someone when I was a boy who taught me all kinds of things. He’s dead now. He taught me about the stars, too. The place I come from is surrounded by mountains so you can’t see much of the sky. He would take me up to the top of a nearby peak at ight and teach me about the stars. When we reached the mountaintop, the sky would open up.”

~ Seichō Matsumoto, Inspector Imanishi Investigates

In post-war Japan, there was a cultural shift taking place as Western ideas started to be infused into the highly regimented Japanese culture. The avant-garde group dubbed the Nouveau Group advocated for this change. In a way, the avant-garde group represented modernization. On the other hand, Inspector Imanishi was the quintessence of traditional Japan. He loomed large in the story and he was no ordinary inspector. He remained the most engaging character. He writes and loves Haiku. He cultivates a bonsai and enjoys green tea poured over rice. Even his approach to solving the case reeked of traditional approaches. He performs his job with minimum fuss, behind the facade of Japanese courtesy.

Overall, Inspector Imanishi Investigates is an engaging work of mystery fiction complimented by Matsumoto’s riveting writing. He wrote excellent and descriptive sentences that created an atmospheric read. He also crafted equally engaging characters who converged due to a series of grisly crimes. This provided Matsumoto a rich mantle upon which to weave a lush tapestry capturing the rigors of police investigation. But the novel fascinates beyond crime and suspense and the dogged determination of Inspector Imanishi to leave no stone unturned. An evocative picture of Japanese culture and social life in the 1960s started to emerge. It is the portrait of a country reeling from the consequences of the war and at a critical cultural shift. Inspector Imanishi Investigates is a multilayered

“Yes. If I can explain a bit. We live every day among many sounds. These sounds can be like notes of music, or they can be just noise. Among those sounds, tehre are some that are very unpleasant. For example, the sound of a saw screeching as it goes through wood, or the kind that makes you grind your teeth, like fingernails on a glass window. Those are unpleasant sounda aren’t they? ”

~ Seichō Matsumoto, Inspector Imanishi Investigates
Book Specs

Author: Seichō Matsumoto
Translator (from Japanese): Beth Cary
Publisher: Soho Press
Publishing Date: 1989 (1960-1961)
No. of Pages: 313
Genre: Mystery, Suspense

Synopsis

Inspector Imanishi . . . Haiku poet, gardener, and the most dogged homicide detective on the Tokyo police force.

About the Author

Seichō Matsumoto (松本 清張) was born Kiyoharu Matsumoto on December 21, 1909, in  Kokura, now Kokura Kita ward, Kitakyushu, Fukuoka prefecture, Kyushu. He was the only child. After graduating from elementary school, Matsumoto was hired at a utility company. When he became an adult, he designed layouts for the Asahi Shimbun in Kyushu. During the Second World War, he served as a medical corpsman and after the conclusion of the war, he resumed working at the Asahi Shimbun. In 1950, he transferred to the Tokyo office.

Despite not attending secondary school and university, Matsumoto was well-educated. As a teenager, he read banned revolutionary texts as part of a political protest. He also studied award-winning works of fiction. His foray into writing commenced in 1950 when he submitted a short story for a fiction contest hosted by Shukan Asahi. The short story is placed third. Within six years, he retired from his job to pursue a full-time career as a writer. His career would span nearly four decades and produced at least 450 works of short stories and novels. Among his novels are 点と線 (Tokyo Express, 1958; trans: Tokyo Express), 眼の壁 (Me no Kabe, 1958; trans: Walls of Eyes), 砂の器 (Suna no Utsuwa, 1961; trans: Inspector Imanishi Investigates), 聞かなかった場所 (Kikanakatta Basho, 1971; trans: A Quiet Place).

For his works, Matsumoto received several accolades such as the Mystery Writers of Japan Prize, Kikuchi Kan Prize, and the Yoshikawa Eiji Prize for Literature. In 1952, he was awarded the prestigious Akutagawa Prize for 或る「小倉日記」伝 (Aru “Kokura-nikki” den, 1952; trans: The Legend of the Kokura-Diary). He served as president of the Mystery Writers of Japan from 1963 to 1971. His contribution to popularizing detective fiction in Japan immortalized him.

Matsumoto passed away on August 4, 1982.