Japanese detective fiction

Japanese detective fiction (推理小説, suiri shōsetsu, literally deductive reasoning fiction), is a popular genre of Japanese literature.

History

Name

When Western detective fiction spread to Japan, it created a new genre called detective fiction (tantei shōsetsu (探偵小説)) in Japanese literature. After World War II the genre was renamed deductive reasoning fiction (suiri shōsetsu (推理小説)). The genre is sometimes called mystery, although this includes non-detective fiction as well.

Development

Edogawa Rampo is the first Japanese modern mystery writer and the founder of the Detective Story Club in Japan. Rampo was an admirer of western mystery writers. He gained his fame in early 1920s, when he began to bring to the genre many bizarre, erotic and even fantastic elements. This is partly because of the social tension before World War II. Rampo's mystery novels generally followed conventional formulas, and have been classed as part of the honkaku ha (本格派), called "orthodox school", or "standard" detective fiction, or "authentic" detective fiction.

In 1957, Seicho Matsumoto received the Mystery Writers of Japan Award for his short story The Face (顔, kao). The Face and Matsumoto's subsequent works began the "social school" (社会派, shakai ha) within the genre, which emphasized social realism, described crimes in an ordinary setting and sets motives within a wider context of social injustice and political corruption.

Since the 1980s, a "new orthodox school" (新本格派, shin honkaku ha) has surfaced. It demands restoration of the classic rules of detective fiction and the use of more self-reflective elements, largely inspired by the works of Ellery Queen and John Dickson Carr. Famous authors of this movement include Soji Shimada, Yukito Ayatsuji, Rintaro Norizuki, Alice Arisugawa, Kaoru Kitamura and Taku Ashibe.

Quotation

I think that the writer of the detective novels can describe human being by emphatically drawing the crime motive. Because the crime motive originates from the psychology when people is left in the extreme situation. After World War II, I do not think that the writers of the detective novels have succeeded in drawing human being enough. Rather I think that from the beginning they abandon the will that draw human being. In this way, the detective novels became the game for narrow-minded enthusiasts. From old days, I had dissatisfaction toward the detective story of the kind that common people could not be interested in. Accurately, I had this dissatisfaction for the writers who continue to write such a detective novel. I will not assert that a detective novel has to be literary. However, nonetheless, I hope the detective novels to be written that we can appreciate more than the minimum standard as a novel.

Ellery, the slim handsome young man says: "To me, detective fiction is a kind of intellectual game. A logical game that gives readers sensations about detectives or authors. These are not to be ranked high or low. So I don't want the once popular 'social school' realism. Female employee murdered in a deluxe suite room; criminal police's tireless investigation eventually brings in the murdering boss-cum-boyfriend--All cliché. Political scandals of corruption and ineptness; tragedies of distortion of modern society; these are also out of date. The most appropriate materials for detective fiction, whether accused untimely or not, are famous detectives, grand mansions, suspicious residents, bloody murders, puzzling situation, earth-shattering scheme . . . . Made up things are even better. The point is to enjoy the pleasure in the world of reasoning. But intellectual prerequisites must be completely met."

Japanese mystery awards

• Awards for best works published in the previous year
  • Mystery Writers of Japan Award (since 1948) - awarded by Mystery Writers of Japan (founded in 1947)
  • Honkaku Mystery Award (since 2001) - awarded by Honkaku Mystery Writers Club of Japan (founded in 2000)
• Awards for lifetime achievement
  • Japan Mystery Literature Award for Lifetime Achievement (ja) (since 1998)
• Awards for unpublished mystery novels
  • Edogawa Rampo Prize (since 1955) - awarded by Mystery Writers of Japan
  • Yokomizo Seishi Mystery Award (ja) (since 1981)
  • Ayukawa Tetsuya Award (ja) (since 1990)
  • Mephisto Prize (since 1996)
  • Japan Mystery Literature Award for New Writers (ja) (since 1998)
  • Kono Mystery ga Sugoi! Award (ja) (since 2002)
  • Fukuyama Mystery Literature Award for New Writers (ja) (since 2009)
  • Agatha Christie Award (since 2011)
  • Shincho Mystery Award (since 2014)

Top book lists of mystery fiction published in Japan

• Tozai Mystery Best 100
• Kono Mystery ga Sugoi!
• Honkaku Mystery Best 10

Japanese mystery writers

Aozora Bunko

Listed below are Japanese mystery writers whose works are available in Aozora Bunko, a Japanese digital library.

Ruiko Kuroiwa's short story Muzan (1889)[1], which is also available in Aozora Bunko, is one of the earliest Japanese detective stories.

Japanese detective manga series

• Case Closed aka Detective Conan (written and illustrated by Gosho Aoyama)
• Kindaichi Case Files (written by Yōzaburō Kanari or Seimaru Amagi and illustrated by Fumiya Satō)
• Q.E.D. (written and illustrated by Motohiro Katō)
• Detective School Q (written by Seimaru Amagi and illustrated by Fumiya Satō)

Video game adaptions

There are visual novels and adventure games that take inspiration from this fiction genre.

• The Portopia Serial Murder Case, a 1983 video game by Enix.
• Nintendo has published many video game adaptations of the Japanese detective fiction formula. Starting with the Famicom Detective Club franchise. They also published a Detective Pikachu video game, which itself adapted into a 2019 film.

See also

• Golden Age of Detective Fiction
• Detective fiction
• Mystery fiction
• Crime fiction
• Japanese literature
• Japanese horror
• Japanese science fiction
• Japan Three Great Mysteries (ja)
• Category:Japanese mystery writers
• Category:Japanese crime fiction writers

Explanatory notes

References

External links

• Zoom Japon, June 1, 2010, pp 4–7 (in French)
• List of Japanese mystery fiction in English translation at Euro Crime