Chapter 16 sensory world

In my opinion, only "benge" reasoning is the real reasoning novel. In today's Taiwan market, there are three versions of mystery novels, which are called "three out-of-print mystery novels" because of their scarcity and precious editions.Two of them are familiar to us—the first edition of Shoji Shimada’s masterpiece, which was called "Astrology Causes Trouble" at that time, and the current market price is equivalent to about 1,500 yuan; the first edition of Keigo Higashino’s debut, currently worth 2,500 yuan around yuan.The third book is not as well-known as the first two books, but because of its pivotal position in the history of reasoning and its scarce quantity, it has the highest value-the current market price is around 5,000 yuan, and it is basically in a state of price but no market, because the market There is no "off-the-shelf" circulation on the Internet.This book is "Tattoo Murder Case" created by the "original" writer Binguang Takagi.

And the year of creation of this book is exactly what we will focus on in this section. As mentioned many times before, from the "first year of reasoning" in 1923 to 1956, this period was defined as the "benge period".Among them, with the end of the Second World War as the boundary, the period from 1923 to 1945 is the "New Youth Period", the leader is Edogawa Ranpo, and the works are mainly short stories with mixed styles; the ten years from 1946 to 1956 It is called the "Jewel Period", the leader is Henggou Zhengshi, and the works are mainly long novels with a relatively single style.

Obviously, the reason why reasoning literature was able to realize the transformation from "marginal to mainstream" during this period was not enough to rely solely on Edogawa Ranpo and Yokomizo's official history.It is the joint efforts of many outstanding creators that push mystery novels to a new level.Saburo Koga was a representative writer before the war and had a pivotal position in the Japanese literary world. Koga Saburo, whose real name is Haruta Nomi, was born on October 5, 1893 in Gamo County, Shiga Prefecture. He graduated from the Department of Applied Chemistry, Faculty of Engineering, University of Tokyo in 1918. In 1923, Koga Saburo won the first prize in the essay contest of "New Taste" magazine (this magazine and "New Youth" belonged to the same owner) with "The Secret of the Pearl Tower", thus entering the literary world.In 1924, "The Amber Pipe" made him famous. In 1926, he proposed the definitions of "Benge" and "Biange", which have been used to this day. In 1927, based on the real case that caused social turmoil during the Taisho period, Koga published the "Hekakura Incident", which was listed as the two major crimes in Japan before the war with Yamamoto Kotaro.This work is full of realism and impact. It is one of the few novels written by Saburo Koga, and it is his representative work.

In 1934, Saburo Koga served as a director of the Association of Literary Artists. In 1941, he was appointed as the Director of General Affairs of the Diet Affairs Bureau of the Japanese Literary Newspaper. In 1944, he was transferred to the Director of Affairs of the Japanese National Cultural Association. In February 1945, Saburo Koga contracted acute pneumonia while on a business trip, and unfortunately passed away at the age of 53. Kosai Fuki, formerly known as Kosai Koji, was born on October 8, 1890 in Kanie Town, Nagoya City, Aichi Prefecture. In 1914, Kosai graduated from the Faculty of Medicine of Tokyo Imperial University and taught at Tohoku Imperial University as a doctor of medicine. He was recognized as an authority in the field of physiology at that time. In 1921, he published a review of reasoning novels in the serial column "Scholar's Temperament" of "Tokyo Daily News", and was commissioned by the editor-in-chief of "New Youth" magazine Morishita Umura at that time, and published "Research on Poisonous Killing" and "Research on Criminal Literature". " and other review articles.

In 1925, Kosai began to publish mystery novels.Affected by his major, Kosai's works focus more on the criminal process itself, full of scientific color and inhuman cruelty, so he was once criticized as "unhealthy".Prior to this, he and Morishita Amamura supported Edogawa Ranpo (we mentioned this bridge section earlier), and wrote the preface for Ranpo's first collection of works "Psychological Experiments". On March 27, 1929, Kosai Fumu suddenly suffered from wind evil. On April 1, 1929, the lung disease that had tortured him for half his life relapsed, and Kosai Fuki died young at the age of 38.

Hamao Shiro was born in Tokyo in 1896.He is well-known and graduated from the Law Department of the University of Tokyo. He used to work as a prosecutor and a lawyer, and at the same time began to write mystery novels. His legal background also had a huge influence on Hamao Shiro.In his works, the entanglement between legal principles and human nature can be seen everywhere.Edogawa Rampo mentioned in "Japanese Detective Fiction" (1935) that the works of Hamao Shiro, Koga Saburo, and Yamamoto Kotaro can all be called "legal detective novels".In particular, Shiro Hamao "even raised doubts about the law, or criticized the law everywhere in the text, and most of the creation of these works originated from the author's own experience."Hamao Shiro was one of the few reasoning writers before the war who paid attention to writing and had a strong social awareness, which even influenced Seicho Matsumoto and his social reasoning novels.

In 1935, Hamao suffered from cerebral hemorrhage and died suddenly at the age of 39, leaving behind the mystery novel "The Heike Murder Case" which is being serialized. Kotaro Muki, formerly known as Hayashi Ryo, was born in Kofu in 1897. In 1924, he graduated from the Department of Medicine of Yingqing University with a doctorate in medicine. In 1929, he became an associate professor of the university.Kotaro Mugi once studied in the Soviet Union and was engaged in the research of conditioned reflex beside Pavlov. In 1934, Kotaro Mugi published "Saccade", entering the field of mystery novels. In 1935, he successively published works such as "Sleeping Puppet" and "Enmity". In 1937, Takataro Kigi won the Naoki Prize for "Fools".Kotaro Mugi advocated the artistry of mystery novels in the preface of "The Fool".He believes that mystery novels are literary works with guessing features, and the fuller the guessing features, the more artistic the work will be.

His views have sparked a debate.Many writers and critics have expressed their views on whether mystery novels should focus on puzzle solving or artistry.Among them, the one who is most opposed to Mumu Gaotaro is the aforementioned Kosai Fuki.It is worth mentioning that the term "mystery novel" was first proposed by the writer Jun Mizutani, but it was popularized by Kotaro Mumu.He advocated writing "mystery novels", originally intending to open up a new field of detective novels, but later the word became synonymous with "detective novels" and eventually became popular.

In the "New Age of Youth", the reasoning writer who best interprets the spirit of "Benge" is undoubtedly Keiji Osaka, who is known as the "miracle writer". Osaka, who died young at the age of 33, is undoubtedly only a meteor, but he is the most dazzling meteor in the world of reasoning literature. Keiyoshi Osaka, whose real name is Fukutaro Suzuki, was born in Aichi Prefecture in 1912.Keikichi Osaka studied at a commercial school in middle school and university. After graduating in 1931, he returned home to help manage the family-run hotel. In 1932, Keiyoshi Osaka's debut novel "Cannibal Bathhouse" won the Best Work Award in the essay contest held by the magazine, but for some reason, it was not officially published.

In 1932, strongly recommended by Saburo Koga, Keikichi Osaka's novel "The Hangman in a Department Store" was published in the "New Youth" magazine, which officially opened his path of reasoning and creation.Subsequently, Keiji Osaka wrote classic short reasoning novels such as "Funeral Locomotive", "Crazy Locomotive", "Ghost of Ginza", "Three Madmen", and "Pit Ghost", which established his status as a master in one fell swoop.Among them, the bridge section in "Funeral Locomotive" has become a classic - the two sisters met a handsome guy at their mother's funeral, and not long after, the sister died...I believe everyone must have heard this story, and the instigator , is Osaka Keiji.

The concept of Benge runs through the life of Keiji Osaka.He has created incredible mysteries with his extremely superb talent, which makes readers intoxicated.If only in terms of controlling tricks and fan popularity, Keiji Osaka even surpassed Ranpo Edogawa, and no one could match him before the war. In 1943, Keiji Osaka was sent to the battlefield; in July 1945, he died of illness in Luzon Island at the age of 33.This is undoubtedly a huge loss of "Benge" reasoning. Some people even assert that if Keiji Osaka can experience the "jewel period" after the war, then the wave of "Benge" reasoning will definitely follow the lead of Keiji Osaka, not by Heng Ditch official history leads. Contrary to Keikichi Osaka, there is Yumeno Kusaku who has the title of "Monster Writer".The former is the backbone of "Benge", while the latter is the best spokesman for "Benge" reasoning. Yumeno Hisaku, whose real name is Sugiyama Naoki, was born in Fukuoka, Kyushu in 1889.Hisakusaku Yumeno's youthful experience is peculiar: he did not study in college, served as a soldier, and ran a business. Finally, because of losing money year after year, he became a monk for a time. In 1917, Yumeno Hisaku returned to secular life and began to create literature. Yumeno Hisaku created a lot of short reasoning stories throughout his life, none of which are "original" novels, all of them are "transformed" works full of fantasy, novelty, and beauty.The focus of Yumeno Hisaku's creation is not on the story itself, but on expressing his thoughts and ideals through stories.Rather than saying that what he wrote is a novel, it is better to say that it is a monologue of the soul.The pen name "Yumeno Hisaku" means "daydreaming" in slang.From 1926, Yumeno Hisaku began to create a long reasoning "Brain Hell".With a total of 480,000 words, this work is the culmination of "Yumeno Spirit" and is recognized as one of the four great mystery books in Japan. On March 11, 1936, Yumeno Hisaku died suddenly while talking with guests, ending his rather legendary life. Another one of the "Three Masters Before the War" with Keiji Osaka and Kusaku Yumeno is the most unusual style of Oguri Chutaro.Anyone who has read his works will affirm that, looking at ancient and modern times, at home and abroad, there will never be a second writer who is willing or able to create a story like Xiao Lichong. Oguri Shutaro, whose real name is Oguri Eijiro, was born in Tokyo in 1901.When he was in school, Oguri developed a strong interest in Western literature and movies, and studied English and French in his spare time.After graduating from high school, he also went home to run a business, but the results were also very dismal.Afterwards, Oguri Chongtaro tried to create mystery novels, but he didn't make any achievements in the past few years. In 1933, under the support of He Saburo, Oguri Shutaro published a short story in the "New Youth" magazine, which was a turning point in his creative career.From this novel, Xiao Lichong's style was formally formed. This style can be summed up in one word: dazzle.Show off, show off, show off -- this is the reasoning world of Koguri Chongtaro.Astronomy, geography, physics, chemistry, biology, history, literature, art, psychology, genetics, law, occultism, religion, criminal history, astrology, alchemy, magic, witchcraft... what readers can think of and beyond , Comprehensible and incomprehensible "Xiaoxue" constitutes the creation view of Oguri Chongtaro.It is no exaggeration to say that in Xiaoli's novels, there is an allusion every three sentences, and there is a knowledge point every five sentences—this is true for his short stories, and even more so for novels. Completed in 1935, "The Murder in the Black Death Hall" is the representative work of Koguri Kotaro. This book is comparable to "Brain Hell" by Yumeno Kusaku, "An Offering to Nothingness" by Nakai Hideo, and "Lost Music in a Box" by Takemoto Kenji. "is also known as the "Four Great Books of Japanese Reasoning", which constitutes a group of strange pictures in the history of world reasoning literature.And "The Murder in the Black Death Hall" is "the first of the four great books", and its "alternativeness" can be imagined.Some people have said that if you are on an isolated island, you can choose to take "The Murder in the Black Death Hall" with you, because the "brilliant learning" in this book can make you study for a lifetime and make you forget loneliness and fear. In 1946, Koguri Shutaro died of cerebral hemorrhage at the age of 45.The most peculiar landscape in the history of Japanese reasoning has since disappeared. In addition to the writers mentioned above, there are still countless heroes in the "new youth period", such as Lanyu Erlang, Unino Shisan, Yamamoto Kotaro, Oshita Utaku, Kusheng Juran, etc., are all very representative of this period writer.Their styles are different, but their contributions to Japanese reasoning literature are all indelible. After the war, driven by Henggou's official history, reasoning writers who were active in the "jewel period" can also be said to be talented.Among them, the first to be accepted by readers should be Binguang Takagi, Shigeru Kayama, Fuutaro Yamada, Kazuo Shimada and Sando Otsubo, who are known as the "five men after the war".The styles of these five writers are not exactly the same, among them, Takagi Binguang is undoubtedly the one who can best embody the spirit of "Benge" and is also the one with the highest achievement. Takagi Toshimitsu, whose real name is Takagi Seiichi, was born on September 25, 1920 in Aomori City, Aomori Prefecture. In 1943, he graduated from the Faculty of Engineering, Kyoto Imperial University, where he majored in machine manufacturing.In those war years, Takagi's major was very sought-after, and he was soon assigned to the Nakajima Aircraft Company to participate in the manufacture of fighter jets.Later Japan was defeated.Takagi's company was dissolved on the spot, and he became a vagrant.Next, what can be called the most legendary scene in the history of world reasoning happened—— One day, the down-and-out Takagi Binguang was wandering in the street when a strike-up person came to him.This person claimed to be a physiognomy master and said that he was willing to meet Gao Mubinguang.The physiognomist said that from Takagi Binguang's appearance, he can definitely become a well-known writer of mystery novels.It would be a shame not to try to create. We don't know what kind of face a well-known reasoning writer should have. We only know that Takagi Binguang followed the advice of the physiognomy master and began to try to create mystery novels. Soon, Binguang Takagi's debut novel "Tattoo Murder Case" was completed-this is the "priceless" work we talked about at the beginning of this section.He sent the manuscript to Edogawa Ranpo, and he was quickly affirmed by the master.Ranpo appreciates Binguang Takagi's talent very much, and recommends "Tattoo Murder Case" to Iwanami Bookstore, the owner of "Gem" magazine. In 1948, this work was published as the first volume in the "Selected Gem Books" series. Takagi Toshimitsu's debut novel has received unanimous praise from professionals and readers, and its sales have soared all the way, even surpassing Henggou Zhengshi's.Takagi was greatly encouraged and thankful that he followed the physiognomy's advice.Soon, he created "Nengmian Murder Incident", which further established his status as a master.Today, "Tattoo Murder Case" and "Nengmian Murder Case" have become classics in the history of world reasoning literature. In "Tattoo Murder", Binguang Takagi portrayed the detective Kyosuke Kazumi.This is the most well-known series of detectives in Takagi Binguang's works. Most of Takagi's works in his lifetime belong to the "Kamizu series", among which representative works include "The Secret of Genghis Khan", "The House of the Curse", "Why Dolls Are Killed", etc. Wait.With a series of outstanding performances, Kyosuke Kazumi was also listed as the "Three Great Japanese Reasoning Detectives" along with Kogoro Akechi of Ranpo Edogawa and Kosuke Kindaichi of Masashi Yokomizo. After the rise of social mystery novels in 1957, Binguang Takagi's creative direction has changed significantly. A large number of elements of court reasoning have been added to his works, and more and more realism elements have been added to his works. "Crack the Judge" is Takagi Binguang's masterpiece after transformation, and the world-famous game "Ace Attorney" is based on this work. In addition to Kosuke Kyosuke, Takagi Binguang also created the images of many detectives such as detective Eisaku Omaeda, lawyer Izumi Ichiro Mokiya, prosecutor Saburo Kirishima and Michigeru Chimatsu.Some of them are thinking geniuses, some are busy doers, and together they constitute Takagi Toshimitsu's reasoning world. In September 1995, Takagi Binguang passed away at the age of 75. Takao Tsuchiya, who debuted a little later than "Post-war Five Men", is also one of the representative writers of this period. Takao Tsuchiya was born in Nagano Prefecture on January 25, 1917.After graduating from the Faculty of Law at Chuo University, he worked as a clerk, worked as a teacher in a middle school, and wrote plays in his spare time.According to data, Takao Tsuchiya has created more than 30 scripts, which is twice as many mystery novels as he has written so far. In 1949, Takao Tsuchiya participated in the "Gem" magazine essay contest and won the first prize with the short story "The Composition of "Death of Sin"".In the following 60 years, Takao Tsuchiya only created no more than 15 works.These works are of a uniform standard, reflecting Takao Tsuchiya's creative views of being unworldly, aloof and lonely. Takao Tsuchiya once said that mystery novels are a kind of literature of division, "event ÷ reasoning = resolution", there should be no remainder, that is, there should be no unresolved events.Such a concept runs through Takao Tsuchiya's creations throughout his life, and it also leads to the objective result that the quantity of his works is low and the quality is high. Takao Tsuchiya's "Prosecutor Chikusa Series" is one of the most famous series of reasoning in Japan, starting with "The Shadow's Report" published in 1963, including "Red Suite", "Temptation of Needles", "Blind Crow" ", "Uneasy First Cry" and other works.In addition, "Tengu Mask", "Heaven is Too Far", "Dangerous Fairy Tales" and so on in the non-series are also rare masterpieces. Takao Tsuchiya, who is 94 years old, is still paying attention to the development of mystery novels.There is no doubt that Takao Tsuchiya is the undisputed Japanese reasoning Taishan Hokuto after the great masters such as Edogawa Ranpo, Yokomizo Masashi, and Takagi Toshimitsu traveled far away. Ayukawa Tetsu is also a writer who debuted in the later period of the "Gem Period", and is also known as "the last master of original mystery novels". Tetsuya Ayukawa, whose real name was Toru Nakagawa, was born in Tokyo in 1919.Due to his father's work, he lived in Dalian, China after the third grade of elementary school, and returned to Japan when he was in college.After the end of World War II, Tetsuya Ayukawa entered the headquarters of the occupying forces and began to write mystery novels at the same time. His creation view is somewhat similar to that of Takao Tsuchiya, and he is also an aloof person who abides by the creed of "Benge". In 1950, he won the "Gem" magazine essay contest for his novel "The Petrov Affair".In this work, Ayukawa Tetsu also shaped the "Ghost Police Department" that readers talked about later.The novel is set in Dalian, China, and focuses on the "train timetable" trick.This trick later became Tetsuya Ayukawa's signature dish, and critics even hailed it as the "Clofts of the East"-about the greatness of Crawfords, it will be clear at a glance if you turn over the previous chapters.But for some reason, "Gem" magazine did not pay the bonus in full, so Tetsuya Ayukawa's relationship with the magazine deteriorated for a while, and he was banned for many years. In 1955, Kodansha planned to publish a series of reasoning books created by newcomers, with a total of 13 volumes.Tetsuya Ayukawa competed with Fujisueo's "Leo" and Washio Saburo's "Fox Living in a Sake Store" by applying for the competition, and finally occupied the "thirteenth top spot" in one fell swoop, becoming a good story in the reasoning circle. In 1957, "Jewel" magazine, whose business conditions had deteriorated, hired Edogawa Ranpo as the editor-in-chief in order to regain its glory.Tetsuya Ayukawa then cleared up his previous suspicions with the magazine, and the road to creation began to be smooth.In the ensuing half century, Ayukawa Tetsuya created a total of more than 40 mystery novels, among which "The Murder in Lilac Manor", "Black Swan", etc., are all very high-level works. In 1960, "Black Swan" and two novels won the Japan Detective Writers Club Award (the predecessor of the Japan Mystery Writers Association Award), and Ayukawa Tetsu as a writer of original reasoning also established his own status. In 1988, Tokyo Chuanggensha was inspired by Tetsuya Ayukawa's experience before, and launched the "Tetsuya Ayukawa and the Thirteen Mysteries" essay contest to encourage newcomers to make their debuts. Jinyicai, who will become very popular in the future. In 1990, the Tetsuya Ayukawa Award was established. Reito Nikaido, Taku Ashibe, Yusu Arisukawa, Kazuki Sakuraba and others made their debuts with this award. The contribution of Tetsuya Ayukawa can be seen. On September 24, 2002, Tetsuya Ayukawa died at the hospital in Kamakura City, Kanagawa Prefecture at the age of 83. "Five men after the war" Binguang Takagi, Shigeru Kayama, Fuutaro Yamada, Kazuo Shimada, Sando Otsubo, plus later Takao Tsuchiya, Tetsuya Ayukawa and another writer Jokage Hikage, these eight became "Jewel Age" is active in the main reasoning literary world.Among them, Binguang Takagi, Takao Tsuchiya, and Tetsuya Ayukawa were also known as the "Three Post-war Masters of Original Style" because of their outstanding contributions, and their status was only slightly inferior to the official history of Henggou.It is the emergence of these geniuses that allows us to appreciate reasoning works of different styles and enjoy the wonderful experience brought by this sensory world. So, when these geniuses exit the stage, what changes will happen to Japanese mystery novels?What is certain is that the person who can make so many geniuses quit together must be a grand master who has shaken the past and present.