Chapter 71

## A True Artisan

* Color
* Volume

**A True Artisan**, or **An Exemplary Artisan**  (職人の鑑, *Shokunin no kagami*) is the 71st chapter of the Golden Kamuy manga.

## Synopsis

First Lieutenant Tsurumi is seen approaching a big building and knocks on the door. Inside, a man who is having tea with other people gets up to answer it. Tsurumi greets the man and says that he has come to see the taxidermist who specializes in animal mounts, asking if the man is Yasaku Edogai, to which he confirms it. Once inside, Tsurumi looks around to see that he is surrounded by many animal mounts, including a polar bear, which Edogai received from overseas. He looks up and sees several mounts hanging upside down, and asks why they are like that. Edogai replies that it causes gravity to pull the fur or feather back, which helps to make them look more soft and full. As Edogai brags about a taxidermists's skill, Tsurumi asks if the demand for taxidermy is really high enough in Yubari to sustain a business. Edogai claims that most of his sales come from overseas and that he mainly deal with Europe and America, since the wealthy clients wants mounts of animals that exists only in Japan.

Edogai reveals a bit of his past that he was born in Nara, but since it's too hot plus a rainy season there, the heat and humidity would not be good for his occupation. As such, he moved to Hokkaido where the average temperature is low and the climate is dry. Tsurumi asks if he lived alone here, but Edogai mentions that he has a mother who has hip troubles and have to rest in an inner room. After having his questions answered and confirming everything, Tsurumi pats Edogai's shoulder, praising his dedication to his work as a true artisan. Edogai stares at Tsurumi's hand with an ominous look, as Tsurumi says that he brought his glove back.

Startled, Edogai stumbles into one of the mount, causing it to fall down and his mother and a man to wonder if something is wrong. He shouts to them that he's just fine and claims to Tsurumi that he never saw the glove before and that it doesn't belong to him. Tsurumi approaches the window and tells Edogai that he and his party purposely let Edogai think he escaped so that they could quietly follow him to the store. In a nearby house, Nikaidou and Tsukishima are lying in wait as a scout and a sniper waiting for Tsurumi's order.

Nikaidou asks if the taxidermist really possessed something, to which Tsukishima says that a Yubari doctor told him that several months ago, a man with a strange tattoo was brought into his clinic after being in a mining accident and passed away shortly after, being buried in the graveyard. However, when Tsukishima went and dug up his grave, he found it empty, which means that the corpse was taken by a body snatcher.

Tsurumi says that accidents in coal mines are a regular occurence, and that miners die all the time, with many of them being drifters. It's also cool and dry enough in Yubari that a buried body won't decompose quickly, which means the town is an excellent place to obtain fresh corpses. Edogai continues to feign ignorance and tells him to leave, but Tsurumi praises the glove that he crafted and asks if he could make him a pair, much to Edogai's confusement. He questions if Tsurumi came to arrest him, but he denies saying that it is not a part of his job.

Letting out a chuckle, Edogai says that the gloves weren't made from human skin, but pigskin since they look similar. He says that the reason why he went to the graveyard last night was so that he could get rid of the large amount of waste, such as animal innards and bones, that he gets from his taxidermy work. Edogai claims that he was planning to bury them in a new empty grave, but he was afraid that he had been caught by Tsurumi's party, which is why he fled. With that, he says he'll be glad to give Tsurumi a pair of gloves and goes into another room to fetch them.

As Edogai is chatting with the people in his house, Tsurumi barges in with a loud greeting to see that the people in Edogai's house are not alive. Tsurumi asks Edogai if they are also made out of pigskins as they chant to kill, stuff, and mount him. Behind Tsurumi and the door, Edogai is seen with a knife as well as a mask made out of human parts ready to kill him.

## Character Appearances

* Tsurumi
* Tsukishima
* Kouhei Nikaidou
* Yasaku Edogai *(Debut)*