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Kyo Takigawa

たきがわ きょう

Takigawa Kyo

Aliases: 松尾 舜吉
Pen Names: Shiraga Taro（Pen name used while working at the Mainichi Shimbun; used for magazine submissions and early stories.）

Profile

Gender
Male
Born
1920-01-07 （Yahata, Fukuoka Prefecture (now Kitakyushu), Japan）
Died
1994-12-31 age 74
Nationality
Japan
Languages
Japanese

Career

Occupations
Novelist, Mystery writer
Active Years
1954-1994
Memberships
Tasasatsu Club (a friendship circle of young detective writers), Aribai-kai (a golf/social club of mystery writers and illustrators)

Education

The Seventh Higher School (Zoshikan)
Country: Japan
Graduated from the prewar Seventh Higher School
Tokyo Imperial University (now University of Tokyo)
Faculty of Economics
Degree: 学士
Period: 在学中に1944年に召集を受けるが、後に卒業
Country: Japan
Drafted while enrolled (1944). Graduated after the war; exact year not specified.

Awards

Edogawa Rampo Prize
1958
Work: Nureta Kokoro ("Wet Heart")
Organization: Mystery Writers of Japan
Result: 受賞
Naoki Prize
1958
Work: Ochiru ("Falling") — short story collection
Organization: Naoki Prize Selection Committee
Result: 受賞
Medal with Purple Ribbon (Shiju Hosho)
1989
Organization: Government of Japan
Result: 受章

Awards & Nominations

Works

Major Works

Nureta Kokoro (Wet Heart)

1958 Detective novel

A long detective novel that won the 1958 Edogawa Rampo Prize. It blends social background with psychological portraiture to explore motives and atonement.

guilt and atonementpsychological characterizationcrime and society

Ochiru (Falling)

1958 Short story collection

A representative short-story collection including "Ochiru", "A Certain Blackmail" and "The Laughing Man"; several of these stories were the basis for his Naoki Prize win.

deceptiondarkness beneath everyday lifedeath and guilt

Hyōchū (Icicle)

1958 Detective novel

A long novel submitted to a publisher's new-writer contest. Its publication was delayed but it was eventually released under Takigawa's name.

new-writer long formstructures of crime

The Age of Eve

1961 Science fiction mystery

A science-fiction mystery in which a prosecutor arrives in the future after cryogenic sleep and plays a central role; the novel raises questions of law and ethics.

time and lawfuture societyrelativity of justice

Ikyo no Ho (Murder at the Dutch House)

1961 Historical mystery

A period mystery that treats Dejima as a locked room setting. Uses historical settings as devices for a classical puzzle-like mystery.

locked-room puzzleEdo-period settingshistory and crime

Matte no Otoko (The Marked Man)

1978 Mystery novel

One of his representative late-1970s works. Later adapted for television as the drama "Target".

targetingrevengestructures of crime
Adaptations
  • [TV drama] Target (1979)

Yukkuri Amataro Detective Series

1968 Period fiction / Detective series

A detective series (started 1968) set in Edo, focusing on period mysteries and serialized across many volumes.

kamishimo detective talesEdo-era human portraitsjustice and compassion

Bibliography

  • Hyōchū (Icicle)
  • Nureta Kokoro (Wet Heart)
  • The Rainbow Disappears (later retitled "Cruel Reward")
  • The Villains I Loved
  • The Quiet Professor (reissued as "Play of Fear")
  • Journal of Strange Islanders
  • Masks and Costume
  • A Shadowed London
  • Sails of a Foreign Land (Murder at the Dutch House)
  • Chronicles of a Heartless Man
  • Tea and Pool: The Perfect Murder Case
  • The Age of Eve
  • Cliff
  • Unkissed Lips
  • Female (Mesu)
  • Execution
  • Voices Among the Trees
  • Milky-Colored Calendar
  • Mirenna, Detective
  • The Sweet Hotel
  • The Woman You Can't Erase
  • Dowry for the Grave
  • Fate and Thunderstorm
  • Red Mirage
  • The Marked Man
  • It's Enough for an Accomplice to Meet Once
  • The Woman Who Vanished in Kyoto
  • Funeral March Dedicated to Father
  • Calendar of Hell
  • The Woman Who Vanished in Nagasaki
  • The Woman Who Vanished in Sendai
  • Murder at the Retro House
  • Falling (short stories)
  • Black Leaves
  • The Lewd Window
  • The Comedy of Corpses
  • A Villain's View
  • Affairs on the Palm
  • The Quiet Wife
  • The Woman at the Fingertips
  • Night Apparatus
  • Points of Love and Hate
  • The Smiling Devil
  • Murder in the Afternoon
  • The Succubus's Bed

Adaptations

  • Matte no Otoko → TV drama "Target" (1979)

Style & Themes

Literary Style
Classical detective-structure orientedFusion of historical (period) fiction and mysteryStyle emphasizing psychological portraiture
Recurring Motifs
locked-room puzzlespast grudges and atonementportrayal of Edo/ provincial streets and human sentiments

Health

  • Cerebral infarction (stroke)
    1994年末
    Suffered a cerebral infarction in late 1994 and died on December 31, 1994.

Legacy

Kyo Takigawa worked across classical detective fiction, science fiction and historical mysteries; he gained prominence after winning both the Edogawa Rampo Prize and the Naoki Prize in 1958. He is known for blending period-fiction techniques with mystery and for leading the young writers' circle "Tasasatsu Club." Related materials are held by institutions such as the Kitakyushu Municipal Museum of Literature.

Museums

  • Kitakyushu Municipal Museum of Literature Kitakyushu, Fukuoka, Japan

Academic Societies

  • Mystery Writers of Japan

Archives

  • Archives held at Kitakyushu Municipal Museum of Literature
  • National Diet Library (holdings)

In Popular Culture

  • "Matte no Otoko" adapted into a TV drama "Target" (1979)

Trivia

  • Real name: Matsuo Shunkichi.
  • Worked at the Mainichi Shimbun while writing in his early career.
  • Led and helped form the young detective writers' circle "Tasasatsu Club."
  • Presided over a golf/social club called "Aribai-kai" (Alibi Club) composed of mystery writers and illustrators.