Author: Henry James Black. (Burakku Kairakutei). Du Boisgobey, Fortune.
Title: [Shachu no dokubari : Tantei shosetsu].
Description: Tokyo, Okawa 1891 (Meiji 24). 220x145mm, without original wrapper in a later but old light card wrapper lettered by hand; 190,[4 advert]pp; 11 double page illustrations. Brushed inscription over the colophon page, certainly read, natural browning of the paper but a respectable enough and solid copy. ¶ A detective story told as a serial to an audience by a gay Australian who became a professional Japanese story teller and actor, taken down in shorthand and published as this book. Black was born in Adelaide and arrived in Japan in 1865 at the age of almost seven - his father, up until now a singer, had bought into the Japan Herald. Henry seems to have grown into something of a no-hoper in the eyes of some of his family at least and rather than settle to respectable work became first a proponent of progressive reform, like his father, then a professional rakugoka - story teller - and even a kabuki actor playing women. His reaction to his siblings' disapproval was to change his name to Burakku Kairakutei (Pleasure Black), marry a Japanese woman and become a Japanese citizen. Ian McArthur, Black's biographer, quotes from a police report made at this time that he was living in "virtually a husband and wife relationship" with a young Japanese man but otherwise there was nothing untoward to worry about. At the height of his fame - 1891 and 92 - maybe six or seven of these stenographic novels were published and other stories appeared in newspapers. It's a bit hard to unravel as a couple appeared more than once with different titles. Even the concise and acerbic Edogawa Rampo gets muddled and misled trying to work out a bibliography at the end of his 1951 essay translated as 'Fingerprint Novels of the Meiji Era'. He cites another essayist who wrote on Black and said he had five of his books, Rampo had only three. This handful of detective stories or thrillers was bracketed by two translations or adaptations of novels: Mrs Braddon's Flower and Weed in 1886 and Dickens' Oliver Twist in 1895. Of the thrillers from these two boom years, two are known to be adapted from stories by Mrs Braddon and one - this one - from a story by Fortune du Boisgobey. Boisgobey's 'Crime de l'Omnibus' appeared in 1881 but Black was much more likely to work from a cheap English translation published in New York in 1882 or by Vizetelly in 1885 - titled 'The Mystery of an Omnibus' and 'An Omnibus Mystery' respectively. I like Black's title better which translates more or less as The Poisoned Needle in the Coach.These stenographic books - sokkibon - were hugely popular, distributed largely through lending libraries and have a pitiful survival rate. They are credited with playing a large part in transforming Japanese literature from the classical and formal to colloquial. This is not the board cover edition, it is printed from what looks to be the same setting on larger, coarser paper with added running titles and was undoubtedly issued in wrappers. The colophon says that it was reprinted on the same day (October 19) as the original which could, I guess, be true. Worldcat, when nudged, finds two entries - both the board edition - the NDL in Japan and the NLA in Australia.

Keywords: literature fiction thrillers detective mystery c19th Australia Japan France