Akimitsu Takagi


Akimitsu Takagi was the pen-name of a popular Japanese crime fiction writer active during the Shōwa period of Japan. His real name was Seiichi Takagi.

Biography

Takagi was born in Aomori City in Aomori Prefecture in northern Japan. He graduated from the and Kyoto Imperial University, where he studied metallurgy. He was employed by the Nakajima Aircraft Company, but lost his job with the prohibition on military industries in Japan after World War II.
On the recommendation of a fortune-teller, he decided to become a writer. He sent the second draft of his first detective story, The Tattoo Murder Case, to the great mystery writer Edogawa Ranpo, who recognized his skill and who recommended it to a publisher. It was published in 1948.
He received the Tantei sakka club sho for his second novel, The Noh Mask Murder in 1950.
Takagi was a self-taught legal expert and the heroes in most of his books were usually prosecutors or police detectives, although the protagonist in his first stories was Kyosuke Kamizu, an assistant professor at Tokyo University.
Takagi explored variations on the detective novel in the 1960s, including historical mysteries, picaresque novels, legal mysteries, economic crime stories, and science fiction alternate history.
In The Informer, a former Tokyo stock exchange worker is fired because of illegal trades. A subsequent stock market crash means that he has no hope of returning to his old career and therefore he accepts a job from an old friend even though he eventually discovers that the new firm he works for is really an agency for industrial espionage. The plot is based on actual events.
Behind the writer, there is also the photographer passionate about traditional Japanese tattooing. Takagi came into contact with the Tokyo tattoo scene while writing his first novel and began to document it. In the 1950s, he photographed the greatest tattoo artists of the time, their clients and their tattoos, thus creating an archive that is as unseen as it is rare. Discovered in 2017 by French journalist, a specialist in tattooing in Japan, these images - of an unexpected quality for a non-professional - were collected in a book entitled and published in 2022. They establish him as one of the most important witnesses to the history of tattooing in 20th century Japan.
He was struck by stroke several times since 1979, and died in 1995.

Works in English translation

The Noh Mask Murder. Pushkin Vertigo..
;Detective Kyosuke Kamizu seriesThe Tattoo Murder Case. Soho Crime..
;Prosecutor Saburo Kirishima seriesHoneymoon to Nowhere. Soho Crime.. The Informer. Soho Crime..

Main works

Detective Kyosuke Kamizu series

  • Novels
  • * The Tattoo Murder Case
  • * House of Spell
  • * Madan no Shashu
  • * Hakuyoki
  • * Akuma no Chosho
  • * Why Has the Doll Been Killed
  • * Shi o Hiraku Tobira
  • * Mystery of Genghis Khan
  • * Hakuma no Uta
  • * Kasha to Shisha
  • * Shinigami no Za
  • * Mystery of Yamataikoku
  • * Kitsune no Misshitsu
  • * Mystery of the early Japanese Emperors
  • * Seven Lucky Gods Murder Case
  • * Kamizu Kyosuke e no Chosen
  • * Kamizu Kyosuke no Fukkatsu
  • * Kamizu Kyosuke no Yogen
  • Short story collections
  • * Crime in my Ichi-Ko days
  • * Shibijin Gekijo
  • * Kage Naki Onna
  • * Jakyo no Kami
  • * Enchantress's Lodge
  • * Shirayuki Hime
  • * ''Kubi o Kau Onna''

Prosecutor Saburo Kirishima series

  • Novels
  • * Prosecutor Saburo Kirishima
  • * The Informer
  • * Honeymoon to Nowhere
  • * Tokai no Okami
  • * Hono no Onna
  • * Hai no Onna
  • * Maboroshi no Akuma
  • Short story collections
  • * Nimakuhan no Satsujin
  • * ''Hana no Kake''

Other novels

The Noh Mask Murder People Gathering like Ants Blind Spot in Broad Daylight Destructive Justice Combined Fleet Has Won at Last
  • ''Goodbye Mask''