Edogawa Rampo

Selections from Marc Walkow’s notes-
“The era into which Taro Hirai was born in 1894 was one of vast and rapid change and modernization throughout Japan. The end of the Tokugawa Shogunate and the ascension of the Meiji Emperor less than 30 years earlier had opened of the country to increased foreign trade and cultural influence, and led to a complete overturn of centuries of isolation and rigid, archaic social structure. Japan was at war with China, and the rapid and decisive victory of Japanese forces one year later would be a testament to the country’s successful industrialization and progress, and signal its readiness to enter the twentieth century.
No surprise, then, that young Taro, though born into a merchant family with samurai lineage, would very quickly cast his eyes to foreign lands for tales of the fantastic. Growing up, Hirai had been a fan of western mystery writers like Edgar Allan Poe and Arthur Conan Doyle; while studying economics in university, Hirai even attempted his own translation of one of Doyle’s works. After graduation, he held various jobs, but given renewed purpose after seeing the devastation of the Kanto Earthquake of 1923, he decided to try his hand at writing, and sent a short detective story called “The 2-sen Copper Coin” to mystery magazine Shin Seinen under the pen name “Edogawa Rampo,” a phonetic transliteration of Poe’s name into Japanese. The story was accepted, and became the first major piece of mystery fiction by a Japanese author to be published in the magazine, which specialized in translations of foreign writers.
Like H.P. Lovecraft in America, Rampo’s works seem to defy easy adaptation, although they are a fertile ground that has tempted many artists to try their hand at taming his imaginative fiction. As with the monsters in Lovecraft’s stories, writers and filmmakers in Japan tend to focus exclusively on the erotic elements of Rampo’s tales, often losing the greater point of the story in the process. More successful attempts typically involve visionary filmmakers using Rampo’s stories as a springboard for their own interests, as Ishii did with Malformed Men or Tanaka with Watcher in the Attic. Body-horror specialist Shinya Tsukamoto made a loose adaptation of Rampo’s “The Twins,” a story about a man who comes face to face with his doppleganger, with 1999’s Gemini, a broader story that incorporates class division, an avant-garde theater troupe, and a self-obsessed physician who learns the hard way to value the ones he loves. Likewise, former radical pink filmmaker Koji Wakamatsu took Rampo’s “The Caterpillar” as the starting point for his own adaptation in 2010, a devastating and difficult to watch indictment of militarism that mixes its own style of body horror with an infuriating tale of bureaucratic injustice and personal, sexual hell.
Wakamatu’s film might in fact be the best adaptation to capture the uneasy feelings expressed by “The Human Chair,” Rampo’s 1925 short story that begins with an aristocratic female novelist receiving a letter from a low-born craftsman who is a fan of her work, and goes on to explore the latter’s obsession with “unnatural pleasure” found via surreptitious closeness to strangers’ bodies from within a hollowed-out chair of his own making. Told almost entirely in epistolary form, “The Human Chair” is the perfect encapsulation of everything that is great about Rampo’s literary works: the invasion of polite and mainstream society by elements of disorder, “deviant” sexual pleasure, abnormal and obsessive criminal behavior, and the implication of the protagonist — and through them, the reader — in the erotic or grotesque development of the story until its gooseflesh-raising conclusion. Written nearly 100 years ago, its unique and brilliant distillation of the basic elements of the human condition to their lowest, yet most truthful forms, is more than relevant today. Although he passed away at the age of 70 in 1965, Rampo’s legacy continues to inspire writers, filmmakers, manga artists and other creators in ways which will continue to be uncovered as our decadent, modern world slowly catches up with the imaginative fantasies conjured up by the Edogawa Rampo’s genius.”
Cadabra Releases:
The Human Chair
The Caterpillar
Bibliography:
=== Private Detective Kogoro Akechi series ===
Main article: Kogoro Akechi
* Short stories
** "The Case of the Murder on D. Hill" (D坂の殺人事件, D-zaka no satsujin jiken, January 1925)
** "The Psychological Test" (心理試験, Shinri Shiken, February 1925)
** "The Black Hand Gang" (黒手組, Kurote-gumi, March 1925)
** "The Ghost" (幽霊, Yūrei, May 1925)
** "The Stalker in the Attic" (屋根裏の散歩者, Yaneura no Sanposha, August 1925)
** "Who" (何者, Nanimono, November 1929)
** "The Murder Weapon" (兇器, Kyōki, June 1954)
** "Moon and Gloves" (月と手袋, Tsuki to Tebukuro, April 1955)
* Novels
** The Dwarf (一寸法師, Issun-bōshi, 1926)
** The Spider-Man (蜘蛛男, Kumo-Otoko, 1929)
** The Edge of Curiosity-Hunting (猟奇の果, Ryōki no Hate, 1930)
** The Conjurer (魔術師, Majutsu-shi, 1930)
** The Vampire (吸血鬼, Kyūketsuki, 1930) First appearance of Kobayashi
** The Golden Mask (黄金仮面, Ōgon-kamen, 1930)
** The Black Lizard (黒蜥蜴, Kuro-tokage, 1934) Made into a film by Kinji Fukasaku in 1968
** The Human Leopard (人間豹, Ningen-Hyō, 1934)
** The Devil's Crest (悪魔の紋章, Akuma no Monshō, 1937)
** Dark Star (暗黒星, Ankoku-sei, 1939)
** Hell's Clown (地獄の道化師, Jigoku no Dōkeshi, 1939)
** Monster's Trick (化人幻戯, Kenin Gengi, 1954)
** Shadow-Man (影男, Kage-otoko, 1955)
* Juvenile novels
** The Fiend with Twenty Faces (怪人二十面相, Kaijin ni-jū Mensō, 1936)
** The Boy Detectives Club (少年探偵団, Shōnen Tantei-dan, 1937)
=== Standalone mystery novels and novellas ===
* Available in English translation
** Strange Tale of Panorama Island (パノラマ島奇談, Panorama-tō Kidan, 1926)
** Beast in the Shadows (陰獣, Injū, 1928)
** Moju: The Blind Beast (盲獣, Mōjū, 1931)
* Novels and novellas which haven't been translated into English
** Incident at the Lakeside Inn (湖畔亭事件, Kohan-tei Jiken, 1926)
** Struggle in the Dark (闇に蠢く, Yami ni Ugomeku, 1926-27)
** The Demon of the Lonely Isle (孤島の鬼, Kotō no Oni, 1929-30)
** The White-Haired Demon (白髪鬼, Hakuhatsu-ki, 1931-32)
** A Glimpse Into Hell (地獄風景, Jigoku Fūkei, 1931-32)
** The King of Terror (恐怖王, Kyōfu Ō, 1931-32)
** Phantom Bug (妖虫, Yōchū, 1933-34)
** The Great Dark Room (大暗室, Dai Anshitsu, 1936)
** Ghost Tower (幽霊塔, Yūrei tō, 1936) Based on the adaption of the Meiji-period adaptation of Alice Muriel Williamson's A Woman in Grey by Ruikō Kuroiwa (黒岩涙香).
** A Dream of Greatness (偉大なる夢, Idainaru Yume, 1943)
** Crossroads (十字路, Jūjiro, 1955)
** Petenshi to Kūki Otoko (ぺてん師と空気男, 1959)
=== Short stories ===
* Available in English translation
** "The Two-Sen Copper Coin" (二銭銅貨, Ni-sen Dōka, April 1923)
** "Two Crippled Men" (二癈人, Ni Haijin, Jun 1924)
** "The Twins" (双生児, Sōseiji, October 1924)
** "The Red Chamber" (赤い部屋, Akai heya, April 1925)
** "The Daydream" (白昼夢, Hakuchūmu, July 1925)
** "Double Role" (一人二役, Hitori Futayaku, September 1925)
** "The Human Chair" (人間椅子, Ningen Isu, October 1925)
** "The Dancing Dwarf" (踊る一寸法師, Odoru Issun-bōshi, January 1926)
** "Poison Weeds" (毒草, Dokusō, January 1926)
** "The Martian Canals" (火星の運河, Kasei no Unga, April 1926)
** "The Appearance of Osei" (お勢登場, Osei Tōjō, July 1926)
** "The Hell of Mirrors" (鏡地獄, Kagami-jigoku, October 1926)
** "The Caterpillar" (芋虫, Imomushi, January 1929)
** "The Traveler with the Pasted Rag Picture" aka "The Man Traveling with the Brocade Portrait" (押絵と旅する男, Oshie to Tabi-suru Otoko, August 1929)
** "Doctor Mera's Mysterious Crimes" (目羅博士の不思議な犯罪, Mera Hakase no Fushigi na Hanzai, April 1931)
** "The Cliff" (断崖, Dangai, March 1950)
** "The Air Raid Shelter" (防空壕, Bōkūgō, July 1955)
* Short stories which haven't been translated into English
** "One Ticket" (一枚の切符, Ichi-mai no Kippu, July 1923)
** "A Frightful Mistake" (恐ろしき錯誤, Osoroshiki Sakugo, November 1923)
** "The Diary" (日記帳, Nikkichō, March 1925)
** Soroban ga Koi o Kataru Hanashi (算盤が恋を語る話, March 1925)
** "The Robbery" (盗難, Tōnan, May 1925)
** "The Ring" (指環, Yubiwa, July 1925)
** "The Sleepwalker's Death" (夢遊病者の死, Muyūbyōsha no Shi, July 1925)
** "The Actor of a Hundred Faces" (百面相役者, Hyaku-mensō Yakusha, July 1925)
** "Doubts" (疑惑, Giwaku, September–October 1925)
** "Kiss" (接吻, Seppun, December 1925)
** Fukumen no Butōsha (覆面の舞踏者, January–February 1926)
** "Scattering Ashes" (灰神楽, Haikagura, March 1926)
** "Monogram" (モノグラム, Monoguramu, July 1926)
** "A Brute's Love" (人でなしの恋, Hitodenashi no Koi, October 1926)
** "The Rocking-Horse's Canter" (木馬は廻る, Mokuba wa Mawaru, October 1926)
** "Insect" (虫, Mushi, Jun-July 1929)
** "Demon" (鬼, Oni, November 1931-February 1932)
** "Matchlock" (火縄銃, Hinawajū, April 1932)
** "Pomegranate" (石榴, Zakuro, September 1934)
** Horikoshi Sōsa Ikkachō-dono (堀越捜査一課長殿, April 1956)
** "The Wife-Broken Man" (妻に失恋した男, Tsuma ni Shitsuren-shita Otoko, October–November 1957)
** "Finger" (指, Yubi) January 1960
=== Adaptations of Western mystery novels ===
* The Demon in Green (緑衣の鬼, Ryokui no Oni, 1936) Adaptation of The Red Redmaynes by Eden Phillpotts
* The Phantom's Tower (幽鬼の塔, Yūki no Tō, 1936) Adaptation of The Hanged Man of Saint-Pholien by Georges Simenon
* Terror in the Triangle-Hall (三角館の恐怖, Sankaku-kan no kyōfu, 1951) Adaptation of Murder among the Angells by Roger Scarlett
=== Essays ===
* "The Horrors of Film" (1925)
* "Spectral Voices" (1926)
* "Confessions of Rampo" (1926)
* "The Phantom Lord" (1935)
* "A Fascination with Lenses" (1936)
* "My Love for the Printed Word" (1936)
* "Fingerprint Novels of the Meiji Era" (1950)
* "Dickens vs. Poe" (1951)
* "A Desire for Transformation" (1953)
* "An Eccentric Idea" (1954)