Customer Reviews

The Togakushi Legend Murders (Tut Books)

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Do you ever have the feeling that most Japanese books are just a little too...japanese for your tastes? Aren't there ever any books written that don't deal with the deeper themes of love, loyalty and loss, cultural isolation or transcendence, but rather just tell a hot story that has you ripping through the pages trying to figure out who-dunnit? Maybe with a few scenes of ingenious murders and a quirky but capable detective thrown in for good measure?

You are in luck. The Togakushi Legend Murders is just such a book. Published in 1994, The Togakushi Legend Murders is a suspenseful murder-mystery/detective story, skillfully intertwined with authentic local legends from the Togakushi area of Nagano that provide just enough background and color without disturbing the murders which are the main thrust of the tale.

The story opens in war-time Togakushi, a small village in Nagano whose main claim to fame is the legendary Maple Demoness, a woman who fed poisoned sake to famed general Taira no Koremochi during the ancient Heiki/Genji conflict. Like many small villages, the legend has fed the local economy, preserving sites such as her hidden cave where she served the sake, the Poisoned Plain where the general's body was discovered and her own burial mound. In the tumult of war, a peasant scavenger, Kisuke Takeda, has learned to take what he wants, and he has set his eyes on an unattainable prize, a beautiful and untouchable shrine maiden Taki Tendoh. But Taki is not as innocent as she seems. She is harboring a deserter, a viscount's son named Tomohiro Tachibana, who is also her lover.

Flash forward 40 years into the future. Tachibana is now a respected University professor, having successfully buried the stain of his youthful desertion. Taki disappeared decades ago, rumors swirling about her final fate. Takeda, emerging from the war as a successful and rich businessman, the secret power behind much of Nagano, lies dead on the Poison Plain of the Maple Demoness, body bloated and rotting, stuffed with cyanide.

To set as hunter for this vicious killing, author Yasuo Uchida has created a memorable detective in Inspector Takemura. Modeled after American TV detective Lt. Columbo (a fact acknowledge in the book itself), Takemura is an image of contrasts. His rumpled overcoat and sloppy manner disguise the keen brain and insight that are a hallmark of fictional detectives. He flips facts and clues over and over in his head, waiting for the bright pop of intuition that will let him know he is on the right trail. With the Takeda case, his intuition tells him only one thing. There will be more. This is only the beginning.

If this sounds like too much of a straight-forward murder-mystery, it isn't. Uchida knows how to weave a subplot, and how to keep a secret. He had me delightfully eating dish after dish of red herring, convinced I was smarter than Takemura, until the final clue fell into place and the true murderer stood revealed. This is a sign of quality detective stories. Uchida has also managed to successfully combine the Western detective fiction with the Japanese folktale, the icon of which is his protagonist Inspector Takemura, with his Columbo affectations and solid rural Japanese core.

On top of all that, it has a really cool cover.

As there is a very thorough summary of the story line, I will not get into that aspect. My interest in Japanese detective fiction is, in part, related to the details of the story that illustrate Japanese culture. One minor theme in Japanese fiction generally appears to be an attention to detail, such as the personal habits of the characters, what they eat, their relationships with others, etc. This story is a little light on those details, but my main disappointment was with the translation.

The translation often strays too far away from Japanese language and as a result some of the nuances of the story are lost. I have questions about some of the choices that the translator made. For example, there is a brief passage that consists of the dialogue of an elderly woman, described as having a heavy rural accent. The translator recreated this dialogue in a form much like an American south rural dialect. Considering the setting, the Togakushi mountain area, this was really distracting and out of place. I understand that the writer was trying to get at that rural dialect, but this was jarring and interfered with the Japanese setting of the story.

Some words and phrases are translated to literally as well. For example, the legendary "demoness" of the title is named "Maple." As an American, I associate this word primarily with syrup and pancakes, more of a pleasantly sweet and nostalgic taste than anything else. It would have been better to stick with the Japanese word for Maple, "momiji." It would have made a better name for the tragic character of the legend. There are related oddities such as the phrase (and chapter title) "Maple-viewing girl." I suspect this should have been titled something more akin to 'watching the fall foliage', or something. I'm sure that there is some double etendre here that just didn't translate, but it should have been let go if it just wasn't going to work.

Then, there are minor points like literally translating "soba" to "buckwheat noodles." This translation loses much of the association with soba in Japanese cuisine. A reader without knowledge of soba is not going to be aware the discrete associations anyway. Should have been translated as "soba noodles." A minor thing, but it was repeated several times. Other examples are the use of "bath robe" when "yukata" was probably meant. This, if true, is really an error since a yukata is not equivalent to a bath robe. This item is part of a plot point and an effort should have been made to describe what a yukata is to readers, if that was indeed the actual original word. (It would not be odd to see someone in a yukata in a resort town, but it would be weird to see someone walking around in a bathrobe).

Otherwise, the legend that is the center of the story is an interesting premise. The ending is predictable about 3/4 through the book. Not an unpleasant read, but a little disappointing because a good translation and better conceptual choices about that translation, could have made it so much better...

I have to continuously read this book for 7 days (I am not a native English speaking though). I like it because of its tragedy not its mystery. However I am not saying that its mystery part is not good.

The level of English in the book is quite good for my level. Perhaps this is because it has been translated from Japanese, which is closer to Thai rather than to the west. I enjoy the book without any difficulty.

As a Manga's fan, I have no problem with Japanese culture nor Japanese names. But the readers who are not familiar with Japanese culture and Japanese names may think of them as noise.