Category: Japanese mystery stories
The visual side of Japanese gothic
Some days ago, I was excited about the new English version of two Edogawa Rampo novels that came out recently. Today I also want to write about a similar topic. People (mainly people in Japan) who are not so interested in Rampo might characterise his stories as ‘old-style erotic–grotesque’ or just say ‘Isn’t he the one who wrote a lot of boy detective stories?’ But in any case, I am very glad to see an English translation – the first English Rampo book in fifty years.
When I think about why I am attracted to the world of Rampo and Yokomizo Seishi, I think it may be an effect of television programmes and movies. Rampo’s stories were written from the Taisho period to the Showa thirties, from the 1920s to the 1950s, and his peak time was some time before the war. Yokomizo started writing in the Taisho period, but his writing became more active after he started the Kindaichi Kôsuke series – so we could say that his main time was after the war. There is a bit of a gap between their times: it is difficult to talk about two big detective writers all at once. But I’m just talking about atmosphere – what I like about them – so please forgive me even if you find something wrong.
The dominant colours: black and red; the kimono patterns: vivid. Ninety percent Japanese and ten percent western sense; although, in Rampo’s case, I guess the western sense was more prominent. But even when people wore western dress, they never lost the Japanese sensibility. Like having a carpet on a tatami mat while sitting on a rococo chair; like stained glass set in the windows of a western-style Japanese house. The building materials shouldn’t be cheap. People had shiny black hair; they gathered under dim warm-toned light, drank wine, and enjoyed a gramophone… The atmosphere might be close to the 1920s and ’30s. In any case, it wasn’t the lifestyle of the common people…
As an aside on movie versions, I recently heard that the 1976 film of Yokomizo’s The Inugami Clan is going to be remade with the same director (Ichikawa Kon) and main actor (Ishizaka Koji). Apparently it will be finished this fall and released next year. The same people remaking such an impressive movie… I’m looking forward to seeing what they do with it.
To tell the truth, in my younger days I was simply interested in aestheticism or grotesquerie or decadence or the unusual or that kind of thing. I thought an artist should be unhealthy and weird. But I was just a kid from the country with no money, and somehow timid besides; so I never made my tastes obvious, which means probably nobody noticed what I liked. The actual me is always normal. I don’t want to feel pain, don’t like violence, and seeing blood is out of the question. I still like beautiful things, but I guess my standards might have changed.
However, some ten years have passed since then, and still I’m attracted to the kind of Japanese gothic romance where you’re likely to meet a vampire wearing a vivid-patterned kimono. I’d like to know more about the time when people tried to imitate western things, but still had an original sensibility.
And I just this minute thought: did the Japanese-style western mansions in those times have Japanese style toilets? I guess so. I think Japanese (squatting-style) toilets suit the atmosphere better... (Sorry to end on that note.)
–YS 28 January 2006
28 January 2006
