Welcome back to Japanese Week!
I'll be posting books, movies, and Tv Series reviews for the entire week... hope you'll like it, and maybe gives you inspiration for your next read or movie to watch.
Tokyo - right after WWII ended
Nomura Kinue, daughter of famous irezumi master Hori'yasu Orochimaru, is a skillful woman, well aware of the power she has over men because of the work of art she has on her body. Tattoos in Japan are still related to mobs and gang affiliates, so you can imagine what it meant to be a tattooed woman in the late 1940s...But Kinue turned it to her advantage and has now a man providing for her while still be relatively free to do what she wants.
Matsushita Kenzo works as a forensic medicine researcher at the prestigious Tokyo University and one day finds himself attending a contest of tattooed people coming from all over Japan.
Kenzo isn't a fan of tattoos, he just happened to see a flyer at the university so he was very shocked when he met Mogami Hisashi, a former high school classmate. Moreover, Kenzo discovers that Hisashi's older brother Takezo is the lover of one of the tattooed female contestants, Kinue. He saw her briefly before the competition started and was immediately caught by her beauty and security.
Kenzo gets quickly under Kinue's spell and, after a night of passion together, she confides to him that she fears for her life...she feels observed and followed. Unfortunately, she was right and on the morning when they were supposed to meet, Kenzo finds her house completely upside down and her body cut into pieces.
Kenzo immediately calls his older brother Eiichiro, who's an inspector for the criminal unit of Tokyo's police and he as well is horrified about the atrocity of the murder.
The crime scene is full of mysteries and riddles that seem impossible to solve and, after a couple of months without any relevant improvement, both Kenzo and Eiichiro start feeling discouraged.
That's when another acquaintance of Kenzo, Kamizu Kyosuke, enters the scene and, with his sharp mind and rational thinking, is able to give concrete help to the investigations.
👍👎My Thoughts
I've always liked detective stories, the more complex the better; that's why I enjoyed this novel so much. It was a complete immersion in the afterwar city of Tokyo and an insight into Japanese perceptions about tattoos...Tokyo clearly changed a lot from that period while the mentality regarding tattoos is still ingrained into society.
I found this novel (which was first published back in 1948) similar to "Salvation of a Saint" by
Some characters are really twisted and fanatic: professor Hayakawa (Kenzo and Kyosuke's university mentor) has a pathological obsession for tattoos and pays people asking in return to donate him their tattooed skin, once they die.
Kinue's lover Takezo is a powerful (and shady) businessman while his younger brother Hisashi is a smart and ingenious young man.
Kyosuke is observant and clever and he really reminded me of the Japanese version of Sherlock Holmes, with Kenzo being dr. Watson counterpart.
I will definitely read more of Akimitsu's book, his writing style is clear and flowy and this story was very well structured and narrated.
I didn't give it a full 10 out of 10 because I found all those secondary characters too distractive and meaningless for the plot's purpose, yet it still was an absorbing read.
My vote: 8½/10
Ph: sohopress.com
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