Chapter 46 lonely whisper

Regarding Edogawa Ranpo, there have always been too many people talking about it, and the complete works have been edited and published many times. Its great footprint is self-evident.However, previous evaluations of Ranpo only repeatedly stated that Ranpo is a one-sided conclusion of the pioneers and seniors in the detective literary world. Aesthetics, the impression he left on us is flat instead of three-dimensional, for which I am deeply dissatisfied.And the dark dream that Ranpo had woven in the depths of his heart throughout his life was never touched once. Therefore, for more than ten years, whenever I have the opportunity to mention Ranpo in the commentary of Kadokawa Bunko, I have devoted myself to interpreting the unknown secrets of this giant.During this process, I discovered that Ranbu was an emissary who accidentally slipped and fell into a different dimension in the mortal world. He had been praying anxiously in his heart, hoping to escape from this wandering land called "Earth" and return to the world. The hometown, but in the end it is buried here with despair.

Unlike Yukio Mishima who brandished a Japanese sword to kill himself, and Yasunari Kawabata who punished himself by lying on the cold floor with a gas pipe in his mouth. When he was alive, if he wore loose Chinese clothes, he would be full of style and walk in disorder. It is such a calm and unhurried general demeanor.However, as I analyzed in "Excessively Lonely Weird-New Edogawa Ranpo Theory" published in Showa 52, these three people have something in common, that is, "stumbling on a sad crutch Persevere in the journey of pursuing beauty”, and the fact that the heart is always suffering is the same.

Then, I wrote a solution to the problem "Ranpo Changing" in the "Complete Works of Japanese Detective Novels" published by Tokyo Chuanggensha in 1959, and I felt that I had finished talking about Ranpo.Although there is nothing to write, I will accept the commission of this series of books because I think that "Blind Beast", which occupies a special place in Ranpo's works, can be explored more deeply. In fact, only these two works were not included in Ranpo's juvenile works series until the end.This is also of course, we must keep the same-sex love of the former and the utterly sadistic beauty of the latter as far away as possible from healthy and normal teenagers.If this is not the case, it is very likely that young readers will grow up to be an alien with a deformed soul, just like me who has been addicted to these novels since kindergarten.

I took stock of these things with a wry smile, and for the "tactile art theory" mentioned at the end of "Blind Beast", I went to the "Hand Vision Art Museum" TOM in Shibuya Songtao for an interview. However, the first time I saw the handbook that recorded the whole series of books, I suddenly realized that I had produced a double illusion. Of course, the general title of "Discussion and Promotion of Japan" has been known since I received the commission, but I never dreamed that the purpose described in the "Publishing Words" was the purpose of editing.Ranpo is not a so-called great man, nor is he a so-called commentator, he is just a "sad man".

Of course, it is of great significance to select a hundred modern commentators to re-evaluate and affirm the true value of each person.No, one hundred is not enough after all, I can even come up with fifty or so on the spot.However, relatively, one of them is not suitable for this title, and that is Edogawa Ranpo.Ranpo has never been a "commentator".Because, treating him as a thinker and praising him as a bold revolutionary is like seeing him in Chinese clothes, equating him with a human being who lives on the earth, and completely ignoring the "outsider" that he still confides repeatedly until his later years This lonely whisper.

But it seems pointless to talk about it now.Moreover, the aforementioned and "Blind Beast" are undoubtedly the best footnotes for "The Lonely Whisper". Emphasizing this point and re-examining everything that Ranbu has brought to the earth is also in line with the title of the volume "Exploring Human Beings". subject.However, here I would like to say a little bit about my extremely unusual encounter with Ranpo's works, which I mentioned earlier and detailed in "The Too Lonely Weird". It started in January of Showa 4, and "Blind Beast" was serialized in Bowenkan's "Asahi" magazine in February of Showa 6, and the published pages were accompanied by wonderful works by the strange fantasy painter Eitaro Takenaka. Fantastic illustrations.The combination of Ranpo and Eitaro first started in "Yin Beast" in the third year of the Showa era. I didn't expect this duo to show such a brilliant effect. The illustrations are all included in the Ranpo chapter of "The Complete Works of Japanese Detective Novels". Nearly sixty years later, the shuddering feeling at a glance still lingers.

In the fourth year of the Showa era, when I was in elementary school, I happened to have "Asahi" at home, so I couldn't help but read it.Since the Chinese characters at that time were all marked with pronunciation, I couldn't help but indulge in it.Of course, this is not precocious, it can only be said to be caused by my peculiar quirk with a deformed soul.When I was in kindergarten, I wrote weird delusional novels such as "The Man Licking the Soles of Feet" and "Water Boy" where water is sprayed all over his body. It is precisely because of my nature that I can easily resonate with Ranpo's works.All in all, I love random articles more than learning, and I can't extricate myself.

Oddly enough, or that may have been the general impression at the time, magazines about talking society, such as "King", "Fuji", "Talking Club", etc., were placed in small well-lit cabinets, but "Asahi" Probably slightly obscene looking, tucked away in a cupboard in a dimly lit room we call the back room.My parents strictly prohibited me from accessing those magazines, so I could only secretly read them during the day when no one was around.Random Walking and "Island of Thirty Coffins" by Arson Robin - Since reading these two books in a quiet room, I am more afraid of the haunting ghosts in the daytime than in the middle of the night, this fear The birth is also natural.

As mentioned earlier, I visited Shibuya Songtao's art museum TOM, which happened in January of Showa 60.I went there with great anticipation, but I couldn't help but open my eyes and observe the exhibits secretly, so even if I closed my eyes and stroked carefully the next moment, I would not be moved at all, not to mention the shape of the works is too monotonous. On October 9th, the Yomiuri Shimbun Evening News reported extensively that the "Hand View Sculpture Exhibition" sponsored by the gallery will be held in Sapporo and Okinawa.According to reports, the only son of the curator, Mr. Harie Murayama, unfortunately suffered from congenital retinal pigmentary degeneration 14 years ago and lost his sight. He still insisted that "I also have the right to appreciate sculptures", so the curator took his son to various art museums , but touching is prohibited everywhere.So the curator decided to open the gallery by himself, and within a year and a half, about 3,000 visually impaired people came to visit.

The exhibition in Sapporo lasted from October 17 to 23, and in Okinawa from November 26 to December 1. The exhibition became a good talk at the time.On display are the works of Rodin and Maillol, as well as the sad dolls made by the students of the school for the blind with the subtitle "God, please give me the window of light".Comparing these with Ranpo's "Blind Beast", I know it is very absurd. However, this is the reason why Ranpo is "outsider".Although Ranpo was awarded the Purple Ribbon Medal during his lifetime and the third-class Ruibao Medal after his death, what he really wants to adorn his chest must be a more distinctive medal, as if just touching it can evoke the memory of a distant hometown Wonder Medal.

The full-length "Blind Beast" is like the title, and it describes in detail a blind murderer who commits all kinds of cruel and cruel crimes beyond imagination.Beginning with Mizu Mulanko, the queen of the Asakusa Song and Dance Troupe, he successively tortured and killed the 30-year-old proprietress of the "Zhenzhu" Cafe, Reiko Ouchi of the Widows Club, and an abalone diver. Among the snowmen on the streets of Ginza, in Asakusa Park tied together with a large number of balloons and released into the sky, mischievously asked a passing gentleman to hold hands but let him hold the severed hand, tricked the head of the spider woman in the freak show house, or The head and lower limbs were buried on the sandy beach far apart, and they even lied about the human flesh as Kamakura ham and sold it to the guests on the boat. Although "Blind Beast" is a detective novel, there is no detective from the beginning to the end.At the autumn exhibition at the end of the story, an extremely ugly sculpture was launched. It has three faces, four hands, and three buttocks.Shuto Haruaki, one of the inspectors, found that the appearance of the work was extremely weird, and the touch was unbelievably wonderful, so he published "Tactile Art Theory" in the newspaper, full of praise for the weird sculpture.Therefore, not only the blind, but also ordinary people flocked to see the beauty—everyone would never have dreamed that those arms, breasts and buttocks were all modeled on the muscle touch of the beautiful victim. On the last day of the exhibition, the audience found an incredible thing on the carvings that they had a glimpse of. On the naked girl with four arms and three legs, an ugly blind man covered it with his arms and legs wide open, and he was already dead as he hugged the statue tightly.A trace of blood spilled from the corner of the mouth was still dripping out, which made the statue's white muscles even more beautiful. ——This is the blissful end of blind beasts tired of killing and lusting. The whole article is full of bloody and horrifying plots, among which I must mention this paragraph: the secret base of the blind beast is located in the basement of the house in Miancho, inside is an artificial forest made up of human torsos, and the bushes with hands and feet that grow up to the sky Woods, strong thigh trunks, and breast leaves dotted among them, swing leisurely among them.When the blind beast quarreled with Lanzi, the countless breasts densely covered on the wall swelled automatically, and the warm milk sprayed from the nipples poured on the two of them.From this scene, we can see the unique aesthetics of Ranbu.However, Blind Beast pretends to be Sansuke of the Shinjuku Bathhouse, and after successfully defrauding Mrs. Zhenzhu, he lures four women from the Widows Club to the bait.Later, he cooked one of the women into human meat in the bathroom. During the cooking process, the mutilated body crawled out of the blood-red bathtub, and the cut torso rolled around like a round caterpillar... The description of the scene , It's too much, readers can't help but feel sick after reading this. Ranpo understands this very well. "Blind Beast" ended after the serialization of "Asahi". Although it was included in the earliest complete collection of Ranpo of Pingfansha, it was not until after the war. The Complete Works of Novel Masterpieces", which were not published during the period.Regarding this matter, Ranpo explained this in the postscript of the Kodansha version: (Author's note) Twenty years ago, "Blind Beast" was included in the ninth volume of "Edogawa Ranpo Complete Works" by Pingfansha, and it was out of print.Later, people from all walks of life asked me to republish it, but no matter before or after the war, I did not agree once. Although I believe that the concept of "Blind Beast" is quite prominent in my novel, there are many different scene descriptions in the work. As expected.However, I also feel that it is a pity to let this topic be buried like this, so I decided to correct the unsatisfactory parts and include them in this complete work twenty years later.This can be said to be the definitive version of "Blind Beast". I always feel that the rhetoric of "the scene description in the work is not satisfactory" is worth pondering.Ranpo is probably just sensitive to the times, and he was the first to realize how "Blind Beast" will be evaluated in the future, so he put it aside for the time being.In addition, Ranpo also mentioned in the epilogue that the murder scenes beyond the scale in the story were unbearable even for himself. And despite the title of "definitive edition", in the complete works of Chunyangtang edition published in 29 years, Ranpo made many revisions.For example, the thighs of red sandalwood have changed into thighs of red sandalwood for some reason, and the foreign word for beach umbrella has changed from Beach Parasol to Seashore Umbrella. Ignoring these trivial details for the time being, what cannot be ignored is the scene of brutality. Even adding dozens of lines is quite intriguing.I will excerpt a few paragraphs of Luanbu's playing hard to get, because there are hidden truths of Luanbu's unexpected truth.In other words, the original work, unlike the current version, does not have these parts.At first, after cutting off Mulanzi's arm, it followed: I will stop describing it. Readers only need to let their brains imagine wildly, tens of minutes later, the blind beast in the dark will cry on the fragmented Lanzi whose hands are hands, feet are feet, and the head is separated from the torso. Then, the following description is added to the beginning of the section "Balloon with Long Legs": A woman's thigh emerged from the snowman on the streets of Ginza. I have explained the ins and outs in detail in the previous article.However, Shuimu Lanzi should still have a head, torso, two arms and a leg.How does the blind beast dispose of this remaining stump?Today I will explain it. It sounds disgusting, and it is better for timid readers not to read it. In the following paragraphs, the caterpillar-like body rolled to the ground, and the passage of murder in the bathtub is intensified at random steps, and about forty lines of content are added at the beginning of the last section of "The Blind Sculptor".Here is a part of it: The author seems to focus too much on killing people for purely kinky pleasure. (omitted in the middle) In addition, after leaving the fishing village, where did the blind beast extend its tentacles, and how did he ravage and dispose of different types of women? Maybe I should describe it in detail here, but that is superfluous.The author has been bored for a long time, and I am afraid that the readers are also tired.Through the above description, at least the readers know all about the human, sickness and evil of our ugly protagonist Blind Beast, to the point where they even want to wave their hands and say "enough". (later omitted) These appeals to readers are probably the lonely words of Luanbu's heart!After exaggerating a long series of murder scenes dripping with blood, like a hundred scenes of hell, he suddenly murmured in a low voice: "Oh, how unfortunate I am! I'm just a criminal who lives between the lines. The blood and the heavy feel of the Spanish short sword on the plump breasts are my only comfort." I am just a person who is keen on activating vision and hearing in fantasy, and is good at swaying, I installed evil but failed to feel a scent and color in the dim reality; I longed to return to my hometown, but I was exiled to another country and could only bear the torment of bone-piercing loneliness.Whether you can resonate with these things may be the key to understanding Ranpo.This has also become the reason why I object to the title of "commentator" for pure writers who have the shame of red and black in their hearts. with others The origin of the word "human outside" is unknown, but in addition to the meaning of "non-human", for Ranpo, it also means the end of the world, a different-dimensional world that cannot be explained by human morality and love rules.In the "Letter from a Foreign Land" section, there is a miscellaneous notebook filled with tiny pencil writing.Here I quote a passage from it: Unfortunately (this is a word I only learned recently), I gradually understood.I think the word "unfortunate" is only suitable to describe me alone.There is another world far away, and there is a place called Japan, I heard that everyone lives there, but since I was born, I have not seen the world or Japan. The "I" who wrote this weird confession is a crippled girl with a scary appearance. My life is full of disabled people with extraordinary meanings, but this setting also deeply reflects the sadness of Ranpo. Ranpo likes to write such words and sentences on the signed cardboard, which is why, in the exile place called Earth, Ranpo can only stare blankly at the many disabled people called humans. "Inhuman" in the sense of "non-human" appeared at the beginning of "Shadow Man" serialized in "Fun Club" in the 1930s of the Showa era.A down-and-out alcoholic who has nothing to do with the main line of the story is thrown out of the bar, and Yingnan helps him up. "Leave me alone. I'm an outsider. The so-called outsider is not a human. You can't understand." Ranpo went on to describe "his voice has a bleak mournful tone", which is very similar to a passage in Yukio Mishima.Surrounded by young ladies, the protagonist saw the white thighs exposed under the raised skirt, but was not moved at all, so he told himself: ……you are not human.You are not allowed to interact with people.You are some wonderfully sad creature that is not human. Using this confession as a medium, the inhuman "Renwai" completely overlaps with the exiled "Renwai".Because both Ranpo and Mishima did not conceal the homosexual plot deeply rooted in their hearts, but bent down and stared quietly, and then transformed it into a beautiful work. Then, the down-and-out alcoholic was brought to the public liquor store by Yingnan, drank soju glass after glass, and suddenly opened his voice and shouted: "Everyone, please listen to me. Do you know Renwai? The me here is Renwai. A monster who has a human appearance but is not human..." The man had been a captain in the army, and his twelve-year-old daughter was selling flower girls.The reason why such a character setting gives people a wonderful sense of reality is also because the time is set in the Showa 30th year.The superficial troubles of the man are redeemed by Yingnan's activity.And although this episode is similar to the warm-up at the beginning, because the writer is walking in disorder, it permeates the heart in a strange way, casting a haze, but it is not hopeless.What's more, "Shadow Man" is different from "Human Fantasy" created at the same time. It is a crime novel full of joy, and there is such a section in it: Among his lovers, there was even a seventeen-year-old beautiful boy. Then, Yingnan really started to come alive from here.At a party held by a secret association composed of wealthy wives from the upper class, a large number of curious ladies gathered. Two beautiful young men "picked up" from Asakusa and Ginza were stripped naked. A beautiful young man called "Black" and "White" started a bloody "fighting" competition... Ranpo's concern for homosexuality began in his childhood, during which time he collected homosexual literature and searched for examples of homosexuality around the world, all of which were mentioned in his essays, with a very open attitude and no hidden things at all.However, once it becomes a work, it is completely different.When included in the first episode of the Complete Works of Chunyangtang, the last scene of hide-and-seek with blindfolded in the underground cave was deleted (referring to the 23-year-old Zhuhu and the 17-year-old Minopa, these two men chase me escape game), because of the eager request of readers, it was added in the fifth episode. It can be called Ranpo's representative work, neither the bluntness of original works nor the vulgarity of so-called popular works, but full of wit and wit of detective novels.The genre takes the form of Minoura's Diary, which opens in an ordinary Japanese-style room with the ceiling and floor sealed and every rain-shielding window locked.Minoura's lover Kizaki first generation was killed in a secret room.Immediately afterwards, on the beach in broad daylight and in full view of the public, detective Kokichi Miyama was stabbed to death with a short knife when no one approached.Two impossible crimes appeared one after another from the beginning, but what is really exciting is not only these, seeing the beginning "I am not yet thirty, but my thick hair is as white as snow", "That The scar is lying on the left side of the waist to the top of the thigh, in an irregular circle, like the wound healing mark after a major operation, and it is so horrible that it is unbearable to look at it." This strange wound has long made readers itch intolerable. Then, the island that hints at the origin of the title finally arrives, belatedly, before readers.This is an island full of jagged rocks, and in the big house surrounded by long earth walls and like a white earth warehouse, appalling and brutal crimes are carried out.But what runs through the whole novel is still the same-sex love of Zhuhu, a medical student, for Minopo until death, and the ensuing indescribable sorrow, which makes this work even more outstanding.In the dark world where freaks and strange old men run rampant, the love between the two is like an electric current, bursting out brilliant and dazzling sparks. Ranpo once said that the inspiration for the story came from Mori Ogai's essays.Coincidentally, Ogai's "Youth" also describes the faint friendship between the medical student Omura and Junichi who is not gay. Ranpo must also remember this work.Moroto and Minoura met in a rented house in Kanda. One night, Minoura was persuaded to drink at a nearby restaurant. Although it is a bit long, I still faithfully excerpt the original text: We walked shoulder to shoulder, stumbling, singing Yi Gao's dormitory song inarticulately, and returned to the apartment. "Go to your room, go to your room." As Zhuhu said, he dragged me into my room, which was covered with bedding that I never collected.I don't know if I was pushed down by him, or if I tripped over something, I fell on the quilt all at once. Zhuhu stood beside me, looked down at my face in a daze, and said in a flat tone: "You are so beautiful." At that moment, although it was very strange, a strange thought passed through my mind.I stood there in the form of a woman, my cheeks reddened by drunkenness, which made me look even more attractive as a handsome young man, my husband. Zhuhu knelt down, took my right hand that was resting weakly on the quilt, and said: "Your hands are so hot." At the same time, I also felt that the other party's palm was burning like fire. With a pale face, I shrank into the corner of the room, and in a blink of an eye, the brows of Zhu Hu showed a kind of remorse for doing something irreversible.Then he said in a hoarse voice: "Just kidding, kidding, I was just kidding. I wouldn't do that kind of thing." Then, Zhuhu fell down on the desk: "Please don't look down on me, you must think I'm nasty, right? I'm different from you. In every sense, we are different races. But I can't explain it to you. Sometimes , I would tremble with fear alone." The meaning of this confession is slightly different from that of Yukio Mishima, and the connection between Mishima and Ranpo is usually known only by Yukio Mishima who adapted it into a drama, but we can't miss it, the sorrow as thin as a silk thread Intertwined, tightly linked these two people.Then Ogai wrote in "Youth": Whenever he sees Junichi's smile, Omura thinks: How pitiful this person's eyes are.At the same time, the words of same-sex love popped into mind.In the bottom of the human heart, there is an unfathomable dark frontier... When I saw many "knowledgeable people" who couldn't even understand this point and only used words like "homosexual" and "shemale" to insult Mishima's death, I deeply realized that "outsiders" and "not to be with others" The true meaning of words such as the body of mutual contact" can also understand the efforts made by Ranpo to fly out of this land of exile. lament If you want to choose the top ten detective novels, first of all, I will definitely choose it without hesitation.However, a while ago, "Weekly Bunshun" held what is known as the largest questionnaire survey in history, and selected "Japanese Mystery Novel No. 1", and the first place was Henggou Masashi (895 votes), and Ranpo failed to enter the top ten after all. .The 13th place (366 votes); the 14th place of "Yin Beast" (356 votes), but it only got 37th place (151 votes). The vote counting method is quite special. The number one title selected by readers is counted as ten votes, not the number of people who selected the work. It's no wonder that there are very few works of Ranpo on the shelves of the new book, and they have not been selected into the top 20 works of Kadokawa Bunko. When I think that this rare masterpiece will sink into the abyss of extinction, I feel annoyed.However, from the fourth to sixth years of the Showa era, the three years from the age of thirty-five to thirty-seven years of Ranbu was the most substantial period of creation. In addition to the above two works, there is also the short story "With Stickers" which is called the highest masterpiece. The Traveler", "The Unbelievable Crime of Dr. Mu Luo", and from "Spider Man", published "The End of the Hunt", "Golden Mask", "Vampire", "Grey-haired Ghost", " The King of Terror has seven novels, and has finally won the so-called millions of readers since then. In contrast, did the dark flint of same-sex love die like this?Not so, in the 11th year of the Showa era, Ranpo published a touching article titled "Zaoza Mound" in "The Spring and Autumn Period of Literature and Art".In the article, the author mentions the tragic love between 16-year-old Itami Ukyo and 18-year-old Funagawa Sainu, which happened between these two beautiful boys who even have extremely beautiful names. The story verified by Yoji Mokutsuzuka. German researchers Joseph Scheidel and Cassie Hack introduced "Algae Tale" to Edward Carpenter in England, and it was the first time that Ranpo heard about it, and he became very interested in this real sad love. It is very simple in "Algae Burrow": The text of "Algae Tale" is not difficult to find. Interested readers can refer to "Ten Kinds of Yanshi" or "Thirty Spokes". But now it is not easy to obtain or interpret ancient texts.In fact, when I opened the second volume of "Ten Kinds of Yanshi" and found the part of "The Story of Algae", it was a whole paragraph without punctuation and line breaks: 花は盛り色あるをてて自らその枝をうしなふされば今の御代见として双に时めき给ふ桜川友従の御もとに吉日みやづづかへServant るTongにItami Ukyoといへるありけりその色いやしからず心すなほにしてものあはれをしり春は东瑞山の花に心をうつし散なんの事ををおもひ秋はSumida River の月にかこち歌は立之忠森が心にもかなふ… … Ukyo ni 16 years old の春风静けき夏つがた南おもての格あけけせせ劳气を设け花のさかりなだらかかかかながめたるよほほいとろうたけいはんにもなし斯ておおじ流を汁でしる船川艾女といへるものありけるが是も十といふて又八つ许りもあまりServant むかそののうるはしくくおぉぬおのこなりけるが右古京が劳气による有さまをひと目见るより心まどひ梦ともなく门ともなくさししし…… This paragraph is the original text. The general idea of ​​"The Tale of Algae" is that Cai Nu fell in love with You Jing at first sight but couldn't confess her love, and finally fell in love with each other.His good friend Saomanosuke sensed Cai Nv's affection and stood up as the elder of the two, and successfully got a reply from Ukyo, and Cai Nv recovered from her illness.However, another young man who was also in love with Ukyo, Hosono Shino, failed to court him, but was killed instead when he wanted to kill Ukyo.It turned out that Youjing had to do seppuku at Qingyang Temple, Cainu arrived after the report, and finally the two chanted the verse of death and cut seppuku together: Undressing reveals snowy muscles, and a knife is inserted into the left armpit... Jade and stone are broken and sleep together forever. This happened in the seventeenth year of Kanyong (1640).When I visited in random steps, the stone tablet about two feet wide and three feet high had been covered with dust, buried in the weeds, and fell to the ground miserably. Look, it's always been like that.In the eleventh year of the Showa era: ... I offered summer grass as the flower of mourning, and the tombstones of the two teenagers lay silently with expressions of no memory. Meaningless straight lines and curves are drawn with chalk on the surface of the tombstone. It must be the mischievous graffiti of the children in the neighborhood.To children, the cairn is nothing more than a stone suitable for graffiti.Even in the eyes of adults, it is already just a stone.Therefore, this passage appears quiet and sad.At that time, there were no good people who would pay homage to the stone mounds of a pair of beautiful boys three hundred years ago, let alone the adults now, the friendship and friendship could not stir up even the slightest ripple in their hearts.If Yukio Mishima and Bikatsu Morita were also "broken and buried together forever" in an unknown place, hey, it might become a topic of conversation after dinner, and be buried in history as a scandal.These ridicules are the same as Takizawa Maqin transcribing "The Tale of Algae" and adding the bull's-headed preaching, reprimanding men, including Samanosuke, for their disloyalty and unfilial piety. Ranpo's Asakusa and Kawabata Yasunari's Asakusa deeply charmed me when I was a boy.At that time, I lived in Tabata, where it took less than 15 minutes to go to Asakusa by bicycle, so I dressed up as a clerk, left the bicycle next to the International Theater, and then sneaked into the subway Yokocho's "Bicola", "Brown Darby" or famous songs Drinking tea "South", trying to smell some residual fragrance of "One Inch Master" and "Asakusa Red Group".The year before the war, Dachuan had not yet started revetment works, and the green algae in the gourd pond and the swan fountain were still there. For me at that time, Matsuyama Iwa's "Ranpo and Tokyo" published by PARCO in Showa 59 was a precious and joyful photobook.Although it is a pity that there are no photos of Okawa and the banks of the Okawa River, the book is full of all the familiar old and beautiful Tokyo buildings.Looking back now, I can't help but wonder how the city is so complex and unplanned because of the Western design that has been integrated into it.However, the scenery in the photo is undoubtedly my hometown, as if I can glimpse the back of Ranbu Wei'an at a certain street corner. The wharf of the steamboat, Kamiya Bar selling electric brandy on the other side of the river.As soon as Meiruo Festival comes, a large group of old women will come to Mumu Temple to chant Buddha all day.Back here is the cemetery in the valley.Various temples with white paper doors, Saint Dominic Monastery in Sakuragi Town, Ueno, khaki art museum and wide stone steps, mourning house with hagi flowers, antique wooden art school and music school.When I came to Yamate, there was Toyamahara, who was "as expected, a lair of evil thieves"——I have been wondering if there will be a publishing house that collects these photos and plans a "Ranpo Album".But looking at the lackluster shelves of new titles, that may be an unattainable luxury. By the way, in June this year, TV Tokyo had a 15-minute program sponsored by Taito Ward, and invited me to talk about "Taito Ward and Ranpo".Although the topic is good, but because there is nothing more hideous than myself on TV, I didn't agree immediately, so the other party suggested to meet and chat first, and the camera equipment was brought in on the appointed day, so I had to bite the bullet and talk about it. for thirty minutes. As for what was said, although my friend recorded the video for me who forgot the broadcast date, it was not worth going out to watch anyway, so I simply put it aside.Not only Taito District, but also Yangyuan Temple in Azabu (appeared in "One Inch Master" and "Boy Detective Team").There are also the demolished red brick Lingnanban church and other places, I hope to be included in this dream album together. Today, I have lived in Setagaya Ward, which can be said to be the hometown of Phantom Thief with Twenty Faces.At that time, Setagaya District was still a wheat field, or a rural area of ​​Tokyo full of dust and mud.But in recent years, there have been more Westerners around Higashi-Matsubara Station, and you can even see blond-haired lost people in Hanegi's police station. It feels like you are reading Ranpo's new juvenile novels, which makes you smile. When writing this manuscript, I re-read the chronology again, and found that I was born in the eleventh year of Taisho, and I completed the first creation and "A Receipt" in random steps.In the fourth year of the Showa era, I read it for the first time in the first grade of elementary school.Because of this fate, I couldn't help jumping out of the theme of "Ranpo, a commentator", and gradually turned to personal content similar to the intersection of "Ranpo and me". As an adult, I have a lot of things related to Ranpo in my life episode. In Showa 32, I met Ranpo for the first time. At that time, Arima Laiyi and Matsumoto Seicho were the directors, and the writers who founded the Akutagawa Prize and the Naoki Prize formed a detective hobby reading club - "Shadow Club".I am the manager of the book club. Because the third regular meeting in June decided to invite Ranpo to talk, I went to visit Ranpo's home in Ikebukuro and obtained his permission to attend.After the "Sasa no Yuki" meeting in Negishi, everyone made an appointment to visit the backstage of the Asakusa strip club and the gay bar, and then took a taxi respectively. By chance, Ranpo and I took the same car.At that time, I asked about Ellery Quinn's short story (The Mad Tea Party) that I had been obsessing over.And talking about detective novels with Ranpo, this is the first and last time. Afterwards, as a thank you for the invitation, Ranpo entertained Arima and Matsumoto to the restaurant by the Ueno Pool, and I followed blankly, witnessing the scene of the historical inheritance of mystery novels from Ranpo to Seicho by chance.At that time, although the serialization had already started, the booklet was not published until the next year, and the general public did not know the name of the reasoning writer Qing Zhang.However, Luanbu, who took over the position of editor-in-chief of "Gem" this year, fell in love with Qing Zhang very early on, saying that his successor must be Qing Zhang. "Anyway, if this goes on like this, there is no future for detective novels. Please, agree to serialize in the new year." Unable to refuse Ranpo's plea, Qingzhang wrote "Zero Focus", and the heyday of social mystery novels began. On the other hand, I started writing the novel "An Offering to Nothingness" in the 1930s of the Showa era, but I was never able to complete it.I resolutely submitted the first half of the 600 pages to the 37-year Edogawa Ranpo Award, but I did not expect to be favored by Ranpo.According to the person in charge, Luanbu was still saying until the day before the selection meeting: This work has been decided, and it can be announced to newspaper reporters.However, the selection results were strongly opposed by Oshita Utaku and Mugi Takataro from the very beginning.Moreover, Masako Togawa and Qian Saga, two writers who became very active in the media later, appeared this year, so "An Offering to Nothingness" had no chance to come out. The following year, after finishing the second half, I immediately wrote to Ranpo, asking him to read it.乱步当时罹患身体肌肉不断萎缩的怪病，听说只能看看电视卡通片，然而，尽管是代笔，他仍答复愿意看看，可我觉得实在太勉强他，终究没把稿子寄过去。三十九年，《献给虚无的供物》以塔晶夫这个古怪的笔名由讲谈社出版，但我不认为乱步读过这部八级字体、两段排版，多达一千两百页的棘手作品。四十年七月，乱步逝世，我想至少为他送行，于是在艳阳高照的八月一日参加了在青山葬仪场举行的葬礼。两天后，乱步敬爱的谷崎润一郎辞世，这是我无法忘怀的偶然。 《献给虚无的供物》出版以来，很长一段时间内我仍旧默默无闻，但几年后受到埴谷雄高等诸位评论家的赏识，重新收录于三一书房版“中井英夫作品集”，自此，不管我再怎么强调这是一部反推理小说，亦无人理会，在刚才提到的《周刊文春》推理小说一百选里，也居于及之间，以八百三十九票获得第二名。可是，想到这部作品是沐浴在乱步的影响下，一心努力继承乱步内心深处的漆黑之梦，本着为让乱步一读的心态一路写来，我也只能满足于至少乱步曾读过前半部的幸运了吧。 我们在没有乱步的世界居住已久。没有《目罗博士不可思议的犯罪》中为我们侃侃而谈的月光青年，《带着贴画旅行的人》也觅不到踪迹。人间无聊得令人发慌，故乡的记忆日渐淡薄。即便试着织出一个个五彩斑斓的梦想，接收的窗口依然紧闭。乱步以及三岛，他们现在在哪儿翱翔？还是就像杰克·芬尼（Jack Finney）在《失踪人口》（Of Missing Persons）中写的，回到伯纳星为村人们讲述新的故事？不管怎么样，只要肉体还在人间，我们永远无法得知……