Chapter 15 My name is Kindaichi

Among the Japanese detectives, the most famous one is of course Kindaichi—whether he is a grandfather or a grandson. In the field of Japanese animation, the only one who can compete with "Detective Conan" is the high school student named Jin Tianyi.In the comic "Kindaichi Juvenile Case Book", the boy with an IQ of 180 has repeatedly solved strange cases.As far as the level of the case is concerned, Kindaichi's reasoning skills are definitely higher than Conan's. Whenever encountering difficulties, or facing the arrogant provocations of criminals, this usually very unreliable high school student would always say with a serious face: "Never insult the reputation of the master!"

Who is his grandpa?What is his grandfather's reputation?Frankly speaking, Kindaichi's grandfather is just a thin old man with yellow teeth. As we mentioned in the previous section, Edogawa Ranpo pointed out the direction for the development of Japanese mystery novels-on the one hand, he spared no effort to create works with puzzle solving as the highest principle; on the other hand, he incorporated fantasy, Elements of the nature of novelty, the pursuit of the greatest degree of sensory satisfaction. Here, we're going to touch on a pair of very important concepts.In 1926, the famous reasoning writer and critic Saburo Koga first proposed the concepts of "Benge" and "Biange" for these two works with different styles.He believes that those mystery novels that firmly focus on solving puzzles as the core and theme are called "pure mystery novels", and later further defined such pure novels as "benge"; "A novel based on unexpectedness" is "transformation".

"Benge" is Japanese, which literally means "the original format", referring to the most traditional kind of mystery novels; as the name suggests, "Biange" refers to works that are different from traditional mystery novels. From the "first year of Japanese reasoning" in 1923 to the end of the Second World War in 1945, works of "transformation" clearly occupied a dominant position in the Japanese market.There are many reasons for this: for example, the creation of "Benge" mystery novels is more difficult; " need) and so on. It was not until the end of the war that "Benge" novels gradually rose to prominence, and finally occupied the Japanese market with an overwhelming advantage, creating a glorious era.

And the creator of this era is the protagonist of this section and the shaper of Grandpa Kindaichi—Henggou Zhengshi. Masashi Yokomizo was born on May 25, 1902 in Higashikawasaki, Kobe City.When he was in the sixth grade of elementary school, Henggou read the mystery novel "The Secret of the Castle" rewritten by Mitsuki Haruna, and fell in love with this type of novel. In 1915, Henggou Masashi entered Kobe No. 2 Middle School.Here, he met a friend who changed his destiny.This friend is named Nishida Tokushige, and he is also a fanatic of mystery novels.He and Henggou searched for European and American detective novels.

In the autumn of 1920, Masashi Henggou received a sad news-the death of his best friend Tokushige Nishida.At his friend's funeral, Henggou met Tokushige's brother Nishida Zhengzheng - he was the winner of the first essay contest of "New Youth" magazine mentioned in the previous section.Encouraged by Henggou, who had a very speculative talk with politics, he started writing mystery novels. Compared with Edogawa Ranpo, Henggou Masashi's experience is much simpler and smoother.Ranpo only published "Two Cents of Copper Coin" when he was 29 years old, while Henggou's official history was in 1921, and his debut novel "Terrible April Fool's Day" won the first prize in the "New Youth" magazine essay contest.Later, he won the second and third prizes in the essay contest with "The Crimson Secret" and "A Dagger", which is astonishingly high.

After graduating from middle school, he entered Osaka Medical College to study. After graduating in 1924, he stayed at home to help his father run his own pharmacy. In 1925, Yokomizo Masashi and Nishida Politics visited Edogawa Ranpo. This should be the first meeting between the two masters Yokomizo and Edogawa. In 1926, encouraged by Edogawa Ranpo, Yokomizo Masashi found a job at Bowenkan, which was the owner of "New Youth" magazine, and was listed as the two largest publishing houses in Japan at that time. . The talent and diligence of Henggou Zhengshi were appreciated by the editor-in-chief Morishita Umura (we mentioned this editor-in-chief in the previous section), and he soon became a key member of the "New Youth" magazine. In 1927, Henggou Zhengshi, who was only 25 years old, became the editor-in-chief of "New Youth" magazine, and his future was limitless.After taking office, Masashi Yokomizo vigorously promoted the innovation plan, making "New Youth" magazine one of the most fashionable magazines in Japan.

In 1928, Henggou Zhengshi became the editor-in-chief of the magazine "Literary Club", which is also a brand under Bowenkan. In September 1931, the magazine "Detective Fiction" was launched, and Henggou became the editor-in-chief of this magazine. In 1932, Henggou Masashi resigned from his official job, hoping to concentrate on the creation of mystery novels.Unexpectedly, Henggou suddenly suffered from tuberculosis and often coughed up blood.He had to stop writing for self-cultivation, and only came out again after three years. I have to admit that although the time and starting point of Henggou's official history are better than those of Edogawa Ranpo, at least before 1945, his achievements cannot be compared with Ranpo.Like almost all Japanese reasoning writers, Masashi Yokomizo fell into the halo of chaotic steps and did not go out of his own style.

During this period, most of Henggou's official history works were short stories, and they were "transformed" works with a strong Tanmei style, such as "The Wax Man" and so on.During the Second World War, subject to government constraints, Yokomizo Masashi created a large number of era novels set in the Edo period, the most representative of which is the "Ningyozashichi Catchment Tent Series".It is not difficult to see that the official history of Henggou has not yet found its own "territory" like Ranpo. The war is finally over.The creators of reasoning novels in Japan finally got rid of the constraints of objectivity, and they can calmly think about the future development direction of reasoning literature.At this time, Henggou Zhengshi finally shocked the reasoning literary world in his own way.

Since the owner of the magazine, Bobunkan, actively supported the Japanese government during the war, it suffered an almost devastating blow from the institutions of the occupying forces during this period.After several twists and turns, "New Youth" finally found it difficult to regain its former glory and ceased publication in 1950. In view of this situation, Japanese reasoning writers urgently needed a new magazine as a position to continue their creative dreams. Therefore, in 1946, a large number of reasoning magazines were launched.Among them, the most famous is a monthly magazine called "Gems".To this day, critics still divide the Benge era of Japanese mystery novels into two—1923 to 1945 as the "new youth period" and 1946 to 1956 as the "jewel period".And the "first brother" who created the supreme glory for "Gem" magazine is undoubtedly the official history of Henggou.

In 1946, Henggou Zhengshi published two full-length mystery novels in a row, which are the famous and.Among them, it was serialized in the first issue of "Gems" magazine. These two works have changed the "transformation" atmosphere before Henggou, and they are pure "original" reasoning.More importantly, these two works have pushed the reasoning of "Benge" in Japan to a whole new level in terms of length and content.People exclaimed: "Japanese writers have finally bridged the 30 to 40-year gap with European and American detective novels!" In this secret room murder case, the great detective Kosuke Kindaichi appeared for the first time.The detective was about thirty-five or sixteen years old, thin and dry, and his clothes were always old and dirty.Due to long-term smoking, Kosuke Kindaichi's fingers and teeth were particularly browned.He is not very good at dealing with strangers, often blushes, always unconsciously scratches his already messy hair like a bird's nest, and talks incoherently - except for one case, that is, he exposes the murderer's trick and makes him feel helpless. When hiding.

Kindaichi once studied in a private university in Japan, but within a year he dropped out to study in the United States because he was extremely disappointed with the Japanese system.In the United States, his life is still very down and out, and he even started to take drugs in self-defeating.Later, with the help of his friends, Jin Tianyi successfully detoxified from drugs, solved several major cases, and finally returned to Japan to open a detective agency.Since then, Kindaichi's talent has finally been displayed at its best. Kindaichi Kosuke is one of the most well-known detectives in Japanese reasoning works. After more than half a century of fame, the protagonist Kindaichi in the comics is actually proud of "Kosuke's grandson"-I have always been surprised. What kind of vision does he have, and he is willing to become the virtuous wife of Gengzhu. It has become a hallowed mystery novel, and it ranks ahead of classics such as "The Mystery of the Greek Coffin"; Henggou's official history has thus become a master of mystery novels as famous as Agatha Christie and Ellery Quinn. In 1948, it undisputedly won the first Japan Mystery Writers Association Award (then named "Japan Detective Club Award"), which is the best affirmation of this work. The success has given Henggou Zhengshi great confidence and motivation.With Kosuke Kindaichi as the protagonist, he has successively created more than 80 series of works, nearly two-thirds of which are novels.These works come out one after another, and many of them, even readers who don’t know much about mystery novels, will have heard of them—,,,,,, "The Evil Ball Song", etc., all of which are classics that cannot be copied.Some of the plots, such as "flowers, snow, and moon" in the novel, and "axe, zither, and chrysanthemum" in the novel, have become indelible images in the minds of reasoning readers.Some commentators believe that in terms of overall standards, the "Kindaichi Kosuke series" is the highest achievement in the world's original mystery novels, even surpassing Agatha Christie's "Poirot series". As mentioned earlier, it belongs to another series created by Henggou Masashi - "Yuri Rintaro Series".The first work in this series is "Plaster Beauty" in 1936, and it is undoubtedly the culmination of the series.The protagonist, Yuri Rintaro, was originally the head of the search section of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department, but resigned due to political reasons.After getting acquainted with journalist Mitsuki, the two investigated countless difficult cases together.Compared with the absolute "truth" of the "Kindaichi Kosuke series", the "Yuri Rintaro series" pays more attention to the suspense of the story, and is more popular and popular. In addition to the human nature Sashichi, Kindaichi Kosuke and Yuri Rintaro mentioned above, Yokomizo Masashi also shaped six or seven detectives, but their achievements are undoubtedly not comparable to these three. If Edogawa Ranpo is the spiritual leader of Japanese reasoning literature, then Yokomizo Masashi is undoubtedly the supreme governor.He established the supremacy of "Benge" reasoning with practical actions, and the puzzle-solving line he advocated has dominated the Japanese reasoning literary world until 1957, when it was broken by Seicho Matsumoto.It is no exaggeration to say that the reasoning writers who emerged throughout the gem period are all "disciples" of Henggou's official history, including Takagi Binguang, Tsuchiya Takao, Ayukawa Tetsuya, Shimada Kazuo and other master figures.This shows how insurmountable the official history of Henggou is. After 1957, with the rise of social mystery novels, coupled with his limited energy as he got older, Henggou Masashi seldom created mystery novels anymore.But his "Benge" thought has not disappeared until the 1980s after his death, the rising new Benge writers still held high the banner of "reviving Benge". In 1976, the Japanese government awarded Henggou the Official History Medal of Honor in recognition of his outstanding contributions. In 1980, the Kadokawa Shoten in Japan set up an award to encourage newcomers to create mystery novels, and named it the "Henggou Official History Award". On December 28, 1981, Zhengshi Henggou died of illness at home at the age of 79.