Japanese Literary Awards

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Hayakawa Mystery Contest はやかわ・みすてり・こんてすと

Edition 1 (1990)

Mystery FictionShort Story

Winners

2 people
小熊文彦 おぐま ふみひこ best award

A fanciful mystery in which a commuting office worker dies on the Yamanote Line and is held up in the afterlife. The premise that he cannot move on until someone in the living world recognizes his death turns city routine and loneliness into dark irony.

In a city where no one notices his death, even the gates of heaven are kept waiting.

222 pages
mysteryafterlifeurban lifeloneliness
武宮閣之 たけみや かつし honorable mention

A short mystery with a fantastic mood built around moonlight. Confirmed as a magazine-published work, it is described as combining the image of a beauty seen in moonlight with a mystery device.

Under moonlight, the image of a woman looking back rises with an air of mystery.

short mysteryfantasymoonlightmagazine publication