, is a popular genre of

Japanese literature Japanese literature throughout most of its history has been influenced by cultural contact with neighboring Asian literatures, most notably China and its literature. Early texts were often written in pure Classical Chinese or , a Chinese-Japanes ...

History

Name

When Western detective fiction spread to Japan, it created a new genre called detective fiction () in

. After World War II the genre was renamed deductive reasoning fiction (). The genre is sometimes called '' mystery'', although this includes non-detective fiction as well.

Development

Edogawa Rampo is the first Japanese modern mystery writer and the founder of the Detective Story Club in Japan. Rampo was an admirer of western mystery writers. He gained his fame in early 1920s, when he began to bring to the genre many bizarre, erotic and even fantastic elements. This is partly because of the social tension before World War II. Rampo's mystery novels generally followed conventional formulas, and have been classed as part of the , called "orthodox school", or "standard" detective fiction, or "authentic" detective fiction. In 1957, Seicho Matsumoto received the Mystery Writers of Japan Award for his short story . ''The Face'' and Matsumoto's subsequent works began the within the genre, which emphasized social realism, described crimes in an ordinary setting and sets motives within a wider context of social injustice and political corruption. Since the 1980s, a has surfaced. It demands restoration of the classic rules of detective fiction and the use of more self-reflective elements, largely inspired by the works of Ellery Queen and John Dickson Carr. Famous authors of this movement include Soji Shimada, Yukito Ayatsuji,

Rintaro Norizuki is a Japanese mystery/ crime writer. He is the President of Honkaku Mystery Writers Club of Japan and one of the representative writers of the new traditionalist movement in Japanese mystery writing. His works are deeply influenced by Ellery ...

, Alice Arisugawa,

Kaoru Kitamura (born December 28, 1949) is the pen name of , a popular contemporary Japanese writer, mainly of short stories. Biography Kitamura was born in the town of Sugito in Saitama Prefecture. He studied literature at Waseda University in Tokyo, and ...

and Taku Ashibe.

Quotation

Japanese mystery awards

*Awards for best works published in the previous year ** Mystery Writers of Japan Award (since 1948) - awarded by Mystery Writers of Japan (founded in 1947) ** Honkaku Mystery Award (since 2001) - awarded by Honkaku Mystery Writers Club of Japan (founded in 2000) *Awards for lifetime achievement ** Japan Mystery Literature Award for Lifetime Achievement ( ja) (since 1998) *Awards for unpublished mystery novels ** Edogawa Rampo Prize (since 1955) - awarded by Mystery Writers of Japan ** Yokomizo Seishi Mystery Award ( ja) (since 1981) ** Ayukawa Tetsuya Award ( ja) (since 1990) ** Mephisto Prize (since 1996) ** Japan Mystery Literature Award for New Writers ( ja) (since 1998) **

Kono Mystery ga Sugoi! Award Kono may refer to: Geography *Kono District, a district in the Eastern Province of Sierra Leone **Kono people, an ethnic group in Sierra Leone * Kono, Nigeria, a village in Rivers State, Nigeria *Kōno, Fukui, a village in Fukui, Japan * Kono peopl ...

( ja) (since 2002) **

Fukuyama Mystery Literature Award for New Writers Fukuyama may refer to: People * Francis Fukuyama, Japanese-American philosopher and political economist * Fukuyama (surname), other people with the name Places *Fukuyama, Hiroshima, city in Japan *Fukuyama, Kagoshima, former town in Japan, now par ...

( ja) (since 2009) ** Agatha Christie Award (since 2011) ** Shincho Mystery Award (since 2014)

Top book lists of mystery fiction published in Japan

* Tozai Mystery Best 100 * Kono Mystery ga Sugoi! * Honkaku Mystery Best 10

Japanese mystery writers

Aozora Bunko

Listed below are Japanese mystery writers whose works are available in Aozora Bunko, a Japanese digital library. Ruiko Kuroiwa's short story ''Muzan'' (188

which is also available in Aozora Bunko, is one of the earliest Japanese detective stories.

Japanese detective manga series

* '' Case Closed (manga), Case Closed'' aka ''Detective Conan'' (written and illustrated by Gosho Aoyama) * '' Kindaichi Case Files'' (written by

Yōzaburō Kanari (born 20 August 1965 in Sagamihara, Kanagawa) is a Japanese manga story writer, best known for co-creating, with Seimaru Amagi and Fumiya Sato, the '' Kindaichi Case Files'' series. He made his debut in 1991 with manga '' Chōzunō Silver Wol ...

Seimaru Amagi is a Japanese manga storywriter, novelist and screenwriter. Under the name Yuma Ando, he received the 2003 Kodansha Manga Award for '' shōnen'' for writing ''Kunimitsu no Matsuri''. The pen name "Tadashi Agi" (亜樹直) is shared with his si ...

and illustrated by

Fumiya Satō is a Japanese manga artist. She is best known for the manga series ''The Kindaichi Case Files'' and ''Detective School Q''. In 1995, she received the Kodansha Manga Award is an annual award for serialized manga published in the previous ye ...

) * ''

Q.E.D. Q.E.D. or QED is an initialism of the Latin phrase , meaning "which was to be demonstrated". Literally it states "what was to be shown". Traditionally, the abbreviation is placed at the end of mathematical proofs and philosophical arguments in pri ...

'' (written and illustrated by Motohiro Katō) * '' Detective School Q'' (written by

and illustrated by

)

Video game adaptions

There are visual novels and

adventure game An adventure game is a video game genre in which the player assumes the role of a protagonist in an interactive story driven by exploration and/or Puzzle video game, puzzle-solving. The Video game genres, genre's focus on story allows it to draw ...

s that take inspiration from this fiction genre. * ''

The Portopia Serial Murder Case , often translated to ''The Portopia Serial Murder Case'' in English, is an adventure game designed by Yuji Horii and published by Enix. It was first released on the NEC PC-6001 in June 1983, and has since been ported to other personal computers, ...

'', a 1983 video game by Enix. *

Nintendo is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational video game company headquartered in Kyoto, Japan. It develops video games and video game consoles. Nintendo was founded in 1889 as by craftsman Fusajiro Yamauchi and originally produce ...

has published many video game adaptations of the Japanese detective fiction formula. Starting with the ''

Famicom Detective Club is an adventure game duology developed and published by Nintendo for the Family Computer Disk System. The first entry, was released in 1988, followed by a prequel released the next year titled In both games, the player takes on the role of a ...

'' franchise. They also published a ''

Detective Pikachu Detective Pikachu may refer to: * ''Detective Pikachu'' (video game), a video game for the Nintendo 3DS **''Detective Pikachu Returns'', sequel of ''Detective Pikachu'' for the Nintendo Switch * ''Detective Pikachu'' (film), a 2019 fantasy film ...

'' video game, which itself adapted into a 2019 film.

Explanatory notes

References

* * * . (2000). "Parallel lives of Japan's master detectives". ''Japan Quarterly'', 47(4), 52-57. Retrieved November 1, 2009, from ProQuest Asian Business and Reference. (Document ID: 63077831). *

External links

''Zoom Japon'', June 1, 2010
pp 4–7 {{in lang, fr

at Euro Crime Japanese literature Detective fiction