Inspector Imanishi Investigates, by Seicho Matsumoto

​ Old and new Japan meet in this addictive 1960’s classic. 

At Kamata Station, in a district of Tokyo, a man’s body is found on the railroad tracks. His body is bloody and beaten, his facial features unrecognisable. Senior Inspector Imanishi Eitaro is called in to investigate. It’s a beguiling case, and Imanishi often feels like he is getting nowhere as he travels over Japan following up clues and possible leads. An occasional collaborator is Yoshimura, a detective considerably younger, but sympathetic to Imanishi’s introverted character and his doggedness in pursuing the truth. Circling around this investigation is a modernist push of young artists and writers, called the Nouveau Group. Their members turn up at odd moments, and we soon start to learn more about their movements, their hangouts and internal dynamics. When two women connected to the group, plus an actor, die in unusual circumstances, Inspector Imanishi is compelled to keep putting the pieces together, until a mixture of inspiration and persistence helps him solve the mystery. 

Seicho Matsumoto published Inspector Imanishi Investigates originally as a newspaper serial between 1960 and 1961. It was translated into English by Beth Cary in 1989. It’s an intricately woven story that is rich in atmosphere and mystery, and provides a compelling portrait of Japan in the early 1960s, showing the cultural shifts emerging in the arts and literature, but also referencing the horrors of the past, such as the brutal carpet bombings of World War Two that resulted in mass, indiscriminate killings. While the plot is complicated and has many strands, Seicho Matsumoto does a good job of making the many twists and turns easy to follow. The reading experience is immersive and intriguing, with uncanny aesthetic flourishes, such as the pretty young girl throwing what looks like a bag of white fluff out a moving train’s window. A novel that will hold you in its trance right up to the last page.    

Inspector Imanishi Investigates, by Seicho Matsumoto. Published by Penguin. $26.99

August 2024