With Rhyme and Reason: Yokomizo Seishi's Postwar Murder Mysteries

Abstract

The 1920s and 1930s were a fertile period for Japanese detective fiction. The genre, which enjoyed its first spurt of popularity in the 1880s and 1890s with the pioneering translations of Western detective stories by journalist turned-translator Kuroiwa Ruiko (1862-1920), had since developed a strong following, especially among urban youth, as the literary exemplar of urbane modernity. Magazines devoted to detective fiction proliferated as stories of sensational murders and brilliant deductions found their way into the literary mainstream. Shinseinen [New youth] (1920-50), for example, the most fashionable general interest magazine of the time, regularly published Japanese translations of Western detective fiction and original stories by native authors not only in its regular issues but also in its biannual supple mental issues.1 The genre continued to thrive until the late 1930s when changes in the political climate and Japans increased involvement in continental affairs made it difficult for authors and publishers to justify works portraying immoral or decadent acts of crime and intrigue that ran counter to the ideology of the state. By the start of the Pacific War, the genre entered a period of creative hibernation not only because of the increased reach of censorship but also the increased pressure for self-censorship. Although the consumption of detective fiction persisted, the production of new works, both original and translated, waned. Some authors lent their talents to the war effort, while others stopped writing altogether. The end of World War II brought detective fiction writers back to the genre to pick up where they had left off. When describing the status of the genre in the immediate postwar period, critics unanimously point out