A car or a bicycle that runs over a pool on its way will scatter muddy water in the direction of progress, and each splash lengthens toward the direction of progress.
If there are specific types of soil or lime on the way, the direction of their impression is the direction of progress.
In “The Priory School”, Holmes says “Look here, Watson! There is a watercourse across the moor. You see it marked here in the map. In some parts it widens into a morass. This is particularly so in the region between Holdernesse Hall and the school.” And “Right across the lower part of the bog lay a miry path. Holmes gave a cry of delight as he approached it. An impression like a fine bundle of telegraph wires ran down the centre of it. It was the Palmer type.”
As it was so miry, Lord Saltire might leave his footprints when he could not manage his bicycle well. But Herr Heidegger fell down. Watson writes, “There was a broad, irregular smudge covering some yards of the track. Then there were a few footmarks, and the tyre reappeared once more.” But at this time, he must have been upset and so left no footmarks which showed the right direction.
Though it was a morass, Hourai suggests that “this dry weather” might make it dry enough to produce layers, fissures and inclines.
Watson says “Holmes sat down on a boulder and rested his chin in his hands.” It is not impossible that there were small stones which were moved by bicycle wheels or which interrupted the impressions.
It is also provable that “If there are specific soils or limes on the way, the direction of their impressions is the same as the direction of progress.” It is evident that the bicycle of Lord Saltire passed “the peaty, russet moor”, “the broad green-belt” and “a small black ribbon of pathway”.
I think these clues are enough to find the direction Lord Saltire took, but there was more evidence which aided the deductions of the Master. After he uttered, “Following the path backwards, we picked out another spot, where a spring trickled across it,” Holmes must have found “muddy water scattered in the direction of progress, each splash lengthening toward the direction of progress.”
Herr Heidegger was “undoubtedly forcing the pace” to more than 15km/hour. Watson noted that “there was a broad, irregular smudge covering some yards of the track” and “the tracks of the tyre began to curve fantastically upon the wet and shining path.” These are the prints noted by Hourai. Holmes must have found soil kicked out by a wheel toward the impression..
Sherlock Holmes must have observed the seven points and marks noted above, although he did not tell them to Watson.
I do not know why Hourai knew the Master’s method. It is impossible to read this in a textbook written by Holmes since no such text has been published even in Britain. He might have met Holmes somewhere. There are some books concerning Holmes’s visit to Japan during the Great Hiatus, but they were written fifty years after the publication of Hourai’s book.
I am considering the possibility of a Japanese son of Holmes. His name is Akechi Kogoro, who is as famous a detective as Holmes in Japan. He resembles the Master much more than Nero Wolf. From my study, he was born in 1894. If this theory is right, Hourai Masayosi learned the technique from the son of Holmes, Akechi Kogoro.
References
1 Charles Higham The Adventures of Conan Doyle Pocket Books, 1976
2 T. S. Blakeney Sherlock Holmes: Fact or Fiction? John Murray, 1932
3 Hourai Masayoshi Hanzai Sousa Gijutsuron Souzou-sya, Tokyo, 1940, pp355-58
4 Kano Ichiro Hokku-shi no Ikyou no Bouken, Kadokawa, Tokyo, 1984.
5 Hirayama Yuichi The Akechi Kogoro Chronology privately printed, Tokyo, 1989, pp52-55.
(The Nezire Zanmai vol.1, 1991)
Appendix; In the first appearance, I wrote Hourai’s name incorrectly as Sanekita. I apologize for my mistake.
The Japanese Rivals of Sherlock Holmes
There was a boom in “The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes” ten years ago. Many Victorian and Edwardian detectives were brought back to life. In Great Britain, Dr. Thorndyke, The Old Man in the Corner, Sexton Blake, Max Carrados, Martin Hewitt, Lady Molly... In the U.S.A., the Thinking Machine, Craig Kennedy, the Infallible Godahl, Uncle Abner, Philo Gubb. You can find Arsène Lupin and Joseph Rouletabille in France, and even in Austria, you can meet Detective Dagoberts.
But none of the editors of omnibuses mentioned “The Japanese Rivals of Sherlock Holmes”. There are more than a hundred rivals and uncountable episodes in which they solved mysteries. Their books are called “Torimonocho (Crime Files)”. Their field of investigation is Edo, the former name of Tokyo under the Shogunate. Some of them are officers but most of them are half-official-half-private detectives called “Okappiki” or “Goyoukiki”. They were heroes in movies and have also been on television programs. “Torimonocho” is called a “Horse Opera” in Japan. Even now, seven programs a week are broadcast in my city.
Before telling you about the Japanese rivals of Sherlock Holmes, I must explain of the system of police departments in the Edo period. It is very different from that of modern times, but worked pretty well.
***
The office was called “Machi-Bugyosho”. It was not only a police department. Its responsibilities were the administration of justice and police services for citizens except samurais and those associated with temples and shrines. There was the Ometsuke and Metsuke system for samurais and Jisha-Bugyo for those in religious orders.
The Machi-Bugyosho was started in 1631 by Tokugawa Iemitsu, the third Shogun of the Edo period. When we think of London, whose police force was founded by Sir Robert Peel in 1829, this system of the Shogun might be ahead of its time. If we seek for the origins of the Machi-Bugyosho, however, we can even go back to “Kebiishi”, in the Heian period, more than a thousand years ago.
It is distinctive that there were two Machi-Bugyoshos, “Kita (North) Machi-Bugyosho” and “Minami (South) Machi-Bugyosho”. It does not mean that Edo (Old Tokyo) was divided into two parts. It was just that one division accepted cases for one month and then the responsibility to take up new cases would switch to the other division in the following month. A Machi-bugyosho which closed its case window managed cases from the former month. Police officers and others were not off duty but continued their work during the “off” months.
The chief of the Machi-Bugyosho was called the Machi-bugyo. He was one of the Hatamotos, the Shogun’s knights.
There were two ranks of officers, Yoriki (upper officers) and Doshin (regular officers). They were divided into many types of occupation, but I will mention police officers only now. There were no Yoriki among police officers. Only twenty-four Doshins were patrol officers. They were called “Jomawari-Doshin” and “Rinjimawari-Doshin”. In addition, two Doshins called “Onmitsumiwari-Doshin” investigated in disguise. These three groups were called “Sanmawari (the three patrols)”, and were in a position to be promoted.
As you can imagine, twenty-six officers were not sufficient for maintaining public safety in Edo, a city with a population of more than one million. Each Doshin had some non-samurai followers called “Komono”, and some unofficial men called “Goyoukiki”. Goyoukikis were the Doshin’s private subordinates. Most of them held other jobs for a living. Goyoukikis had men called “Teshita” or “Shitappiki”. Some of them were embryo hooligans, others were ordinary citizens.
Some of the Japanese rivals of Sherlock Holmes are Doshins. They appear in The Crime files of Agojuro, The Crime files of Mutturi Umon (Umon the Silent), The Crime files of Ikeda Daisuke and others.
Most of them are Goyoukikis. And the origin of Torimonochos was a Goyoukiki. His name is Hanshichi of Mikawa town, written by Okamoto Kido.
***
Okamoto Kido was born in 1872 as a son of a former samurai who worked at the British Legation in Tokyo. He was a newspaperman, a Kabuki playwright, and a translator. He was good at Engl
ish and translated Conan Doyle’s work “The Captain of the Polestar”.
Okamoto Kido wrote “A Memory of the Crime Files of Hanshichi” in 1927.
It was April 1916 when I decided to start writing “The Crime Files of Hanshichi”. In those days, I had read some of the adventures of Sherlock Holmes, but had not read through all the series yet. As I had an opportunity to go to The Maruzen Bookstore, I bought The Adventures, The Memoirs and The Return of Sherlock Holmes and did with them. I found a great interest in detective stories, and I wanted to write some detective stories by myself. Of cause I had read some works of Hume and other writers, but these were the works of Doyle which stimulated me.
He also wrote about other non-Holmes stories he read.
There were no detective stories of the Edo period. If I wrote a modern detective story, it must be a copy of the western style. If it was in the Edo style it would be something quite different altogether.
His first Hanshichi story “The Soul of Obun” appeared in the January issue of Bungei Club in 1917. His last and sixty-eighth story was “The Two Wives” in 1936.
He described Hanshichi as “a hidden Sherlock Holmes in the Edo period” in “The Soul of Obun”. He kept Holmes in his mind when he wrote this series.
He used a technique of Holmes, too. He said in “The Mikawa Comic Dialogists”, “Hanshichi watched his right hand palm and judged that he must be a comic dialogist playing a drum.” He also used a trick of “The Norwood Builder” in this episode to lure a criminal to come toward him from a shrine.
It is not said that The Crime files of Hanshichi is a complete rival of Sherlock Holmes. Some of its episodes are ghost stories, and several are not Hanshichi stories. Though Hanshichi had some “Shitappikis”, it would be beyond their power to be a Watson.
***
The most famous Goyokiki is “Zenigata Heiji” by Nomura Kodo (1882-1970). All three-hundred and eighty-four stories and novels of Heiji are written by one writer. It was 1931 when the first story “A Virgin in Gold” appeared.
The author Nomura Kodo was an admirer of the Canon. He said in his essay “The Birth of Heiji”, “...Japanese readers cannot think of the existence of Conan Doyle without Sherlock Holmes. It is common sense that we would not care about Doyle if he didn’t write the Sherlock Holmes stories.”
In his high school days, he asked his English teacher to use the Canon as a textbook. He continued his interest in Holmes and Arsène Lupin after he became a newspaperman. In his essay “Before Zenigata Heiji”, “My interest in Leblanc went off. The works of Conan Doyle are sound enough to withstand re-reading, but not those of Leblanc which are only showy. The difference between Doyle and Leblanc is clear.”
He also respected Okamoto Kido’s Hanshichi. He said, “These stories and the Sherlock Holmes stories of Conan Doyle are the two biggest detective stories of western and eastern world in quality and quantity.”
The start of Crime files of Heiji was a request from an editor of a new magazine called Oru Yomimono. This editor asked Nomura for a crime file series like that of Kido’s Hanshichi. Heiji is a rival of Holmes and Hanshichi. Nomura Kodo gave Heiji a remarkable ability. Like The Old Man in the Corner and Max Carrados, this is a tradition for rivals of Sherlock Holmes. Heiji catches criminals by pitching a heavy coin at them as a weapon. Nomura took this idea from Suikoden which is a classic of Chinese literature.
One of the biggest differences between Heiji and Hanshichi is the existence of a Watson in Hachigoro. He is a tall easy-going Shitappiki whose resemblance to Watson is described with the words “my dear Watson rushed into the mysterious case first and foremost” in “Jigoku no Mon (The Gate of Hell)”. He tells Heiji all the trivial news occurring in Edo, and Heiji solves a mystery with some of this information. Hachigoro is not only a Watson but also a newspaper of Edo.
Heiji bears some resemblance to Holmes. Though he was always poor, he never received any money from the people concerned in the cases. He was sometimes called “Shikujiri Heiji (Heiji the Miscarriage)”. He connived with many criminals because he felt sympathy for them. He hated crimes but not criminals. It reminds me of how Holmes took the responsibility for judging criminals on himself in BLUE, DEVI, ABBE, 3GAB and BOSC. He says in BOSC, “I have done more real harm by my discovery of the criminal than ever he had done by his crime.” He drank little but is a heavy smoker. Heiji wanted no fame. He never felt uneasy even when his rivals stole credit for his work. Though Heiji worked for Machi-bugyosho, he disliked samurais who were men of power. He was a defender of the common people. The biggest difference between Heiji and Holmes is the existence of his wife, Oshizu. She was a good Mrs. Hudson for Heiji and Hachigoro.
There are many Heiji stories that were influenced by the Canon. The most famous one is “Neko no Kubiwa (A Cat Collar)”. A retired merchant was treated cruelly by his adopted son and his wife. One morning, the old man was found dead in his room. His throat was cut and the murder weapon which the victim owned was found in the garden far from the dead body. His favorite cat was smeared with blood. The heartless son was arrested. Heiji saw that it was really a suicide. The old merchant despaired of his and his small daughter’s future. After cutting his throat by himself, he inserted the knife into the cat’s collar. The cat was astonished and jumped out of the room. This is the plot of THOR. There is another case which used this plot. This is “Arasoi no Odori (The Dance Match)”. The criminal must have known the case of “A Cat Collar”. She killed her employer, and disguised it to look as if the victim committed suicide as in the plot of THOR. In this episode, the murder weapon was linked to a cart.
There are two episodes which used the plot of MUSG. In “Fujimi no Tou (The Mt. Fuji Viewing Tower)”, the treasure was found under the shadow of a tower which was burnt down as told in a spell. In “Yaso no Shi (The Death of Yaso)”, Yaso was found dead between a stone case and its lid. He planned to steal the treasure in it just as Brunton opened the heavy flagstone.
In “Aya no Tsuzumi (A Drum with Figured Cloth)”, the criminal shot the victim’s shadow like in EMPT. In “Ofune Otan”, the trick of the finger print of John Hector McFarlane in NORW was used but modified into a foot print. Heiji asked a doshin to wash down a female begger like that of TWIS in “Bijo o Araidasu (Washing out a Beauty)”. She made herself dirty to avoid an admirer and being killed by her brother in law.
In “Hanami no Adauchi (The Revenge at the Flower-viewing)”, we can see an example of “when you have excluded the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth,” Holmes’ famous quote from BERY. We also see this quote in “Hanami no Hate (After the Flower-viewing)”: “Moreover, what is winding around the neck is a speckled band, an apron lace that looks like a snake.”
But such similarities do not diminish The Crime files of Zenigata Heiji. Nomura Kodo’s intention is to create “A Utopia of Law”. Heiji’s humanity touched the hearts of many readers. A one hour television series of Heiji stories broadcasted eight-hundred and eighty-eight programs. This may show how much Japanese people feel sympathy toward Heiji and Hachigoro. Former Prime Minister Yoshida Shigeru, the only Japanese person whose wax doll is displayed at Madame Tussaud’s of Baker Street, said his favorite book was The Crime Files of Zenigata Heiji. This made him rise in popularity a lot. Heiji is the ideal defender of law for us.
Twenty-six years after the first Heiji story “A Virgin in Gold”, Kodo wrote the last Heiji story “The Sound of a Rifle” when he was seventy-five years old and suffering from an eye illness.
***
I was astonished at an advertisement in the Mainichi Shinbun newspaper on July 14 1985. It told of a videocassette devoted to the famous actor Hasegawa Kazuo who was a star of samurai movies. This videocassette included excellent scenes from his movies. The names of the movies which had scenes included were listed in the advertisement. I found The Crime Files of Zenigata Heiji and The Speckle
d Snake among these names. Hasegawa Kazuo played Heiji in movies many times. Heiji was his most successful part. But Nomura Kodo never wrote a case of Heiji’s called The Speckled Snake. I wonder if it was “The Adventure of The Speckled Band”. If so, Hasegawa Kazuo was the first person who performed in this story of Holmes.
I visited a library to investigate what it was with great expectations. This movie was made in 1956 by Daiei Kyoto Movie. The director was Kato Bin, Zenigata Heiji was played by Hasegawa Kazuo and Hachigoro was played by Sakai Shunji.
In conclusion, it is not “The Speckled Band”. It is an original story about false gold coins made up for the movie. The villains kidnapped gold workers, shut them in a secret underground factory to make false gold coins, and tattooed pictures of a speckled snake on the craftsmen to find them when they escaped from the factory.
But it told me how Heiji is close to Sherlock Holmes.
***
It was 1917 when the “Torimonocho” was created by Okamoto Kido. He is an Edgar Alan Poe of the “Torimonocho” which based their style on the Canon of Sherlock Holmes. Nomura Kodo who wrote Heiji in 1931 is like Conan Doyle because he established “Torimonocho” and many “Rivals of Heiji”.
There was another reason why so many rivals appeared in the late 1930’s. The power of the army grew and detective stories which the military considered insincere were oppressed. Many jobless detective story writers began to write “Torimonocho” to live. One of them was Yokomizo Seishi, one of the most famous Japanese detective story writers. He started his career as a writer in 1921, but he began to write The Crime Files of Ningyo Sashichi in 1938 and had to give up writing detective stories soon after. “Torimonocho” was his only way to live during war time.
East Wind Coming Page 2