Seishi Yokomizo was a novelist in Shōwa period Japan.
Early life
Yokomizo was born in the city ofKobe, Hyōgo Prefecture. He read detective stories as a boy and in 1921, while employed by the Daiichi Bank, published his first story in the popular magazine Shin Seinen. He graduated from Osaka Pharmaceutical College with a degree in pharmacy, and initially intended to take over his family's drug store even though sceptical of the contemporary ahistorical attitude towards drugs. However, drawn by his interest in literature, and the encouragement of Edogawa Rampo, he went to Tokyo instead, where he was hired by the Hakubunkanpublishing company in 1926. After serving as editor in chief of several magazines, he resigned in 1932 to devote himself full-time to writing.
Literary career
Yokomizo was attracted to the literary genre of historical fiction, especially that of the historicaldetective novel. In July 1934, while resting in the mountains of Nagano to recuperate from tuberculosis, he completed his first novelOnibi, which was published in 1935, although parts were immediately censored by the authorities. Undeterred, Yokomizo followed on his early success with a second novel Ningyo Sashichi torimonocho. However, during World War II, he faced difficulties in getting his works published due to the wartime conditions, and was in severe economic difficulties. The lack of Streptomycin and other antibiotics also meant that his tuberculosis could not be properly treated, and he joked with friends that it was a race to see whether he would die of disease or of starvation. However, soon after the end of World War II, his works received wide recognition and he developed an enormous fan following. He published many works via Kodansha's Weekly Shōnen Magazine in serialized form, concentrating only on popular mystery novels, based on the orthodox western detective story format, starting with Honjin Satsujin Jiken and Chōchō Satsujin Jinken. His works became the model for postwar Japanese mystery writing. He was also often called the "Japanese John Dickson Carr" after the writer whom he admired. Yokomizo is most well known for creating the private detective character Kosuke Kindaichi. Many of his works have been made into movies. Scholar Mari Kotani called his 1939 story The Death's Head Stranger "the first successful adaptation of Bram Stoker's Dracula" and "the archetype of Japanese vampire literature." Yokomizo died of colon cancer in 1981. His grave is at the Seishun-en cemetery in Kawasaki, Kanagawa. In 2018 a literature professor found a previously missing piece of Yokomizo's wartime serial romance story "Yukiwariso," completing the manuscript for publication in book form.
