
The Evolution of Classical Detective Fiction in Japan
Between Honkaku and Henkaku
Satomi Saito(Author)
Cambridge University Press
Will be published approx. on 31. July 2026
Book
Paperback/Softback
75 pages
978-1-009-53395-9 (ISBN)
Description
This Element traces the evolution of honkaku (orthodox) detective fiction in Japan, examining how a Western-derived puzzle genre was adapted, contested, and transformed within Japan's twentieth-century cultural climate. It begins with the genre's prewar formation, focusing on Edogawa Rampo's shift from a faithful practitioner of honkaku to a representative figure of Japan's henkaku (unorthodox) mode. The second section analyzes the postwar honkaku movement, demonstrating how Seishi Yokomizo and Seicho Matsumoto revitalized the genre while revealing the limits of the classical puzzle model. The final section turns to the New Orthodox School of the 1990s, whose writers pushed honkaku to its limits by reworking narrative structures and subverting genre conventions. By foregrounding debates surrounding honkaku, this Element theorizes detective fiction as a historically contingent system of formal constraints and cultural negotiations, positioning modern Japanese literature as a crucial site for rethinking genre, narrative logic, and the global circulation of literary forms.
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Cambridge
United Kingdom
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Illustrations
Worked examples or Exercises
ISBN-13
978-1-009-53395-9 (9781009533959)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

Book
approx. 07/2026
Cambridge University Press
€68.50
Not yet published
Person
Content
Introduction: The Discourse of Orthodoxy in Japanese Detective Fiction; 1. Edogawa Rampo and the Politics of Genre; 2. Postwar Orthodoxy and Its Discontents: Seishi Yokomizo and Seicho Matsumoto; 3. The New Orthodox School and the Re-Narrativization of Postwar Japan; Conclusion: Beyond Honkaku.