Inhae's blog

Udaru Oshita started writing detective novels in the 1920s, inspired by his colleague Saburo Koga (they were both working at the Ministry of Agriculture and Commerce at the time). Together with Edogawa Rampo, Udaru Oshita and Saburo Koga are known as the three great masters of pre-war detective fiction. Yet, Udaru Oshita does not enjoy the same reputation as Edogawa Rampo nowadays, and I might be wrong, but I don’t believe that he has been translated into English? (I’m writing this in January 2025, and he does not even have a wikipedia page in English.)

Udaru Oshita is also known for the famous dispute with Saburo Koga about whether all detective fiction should be honkaku or not (the collection contains Oshita’s response to Koga on this matter). Koga was the honkaku advocate, while Oshita had a broader definition of detective fiction. From what I have read so far, I find his novels and short stories more focused on characters than tricks and puzzle solving. People’s stories and the path that led them to crime is what really matters in Oshita’s stories, it’s also not always a question of motive, but sometimes a question of circumstances and background, though that might be true mostly for post-war writings.

Out of the three authors mentioned earlier, Udaru Oshita is easily my favourite one. If I had to name my favourite Japanese author of mystery fiction it would be him followed by Jokichi Hikage (but there are still many authors I haven’t read!).

The Sogensha selection of short stories for this collection is excellent. It focuses on pre-war writings and shows a good panel of Udaru Oshita’s style.

I’ll go over some of my favourites short stories:

The short story that gave its name to the collection, 偽悪病患者, is a real masterpiece. We have a murder solved remotely with a good amount of deceit and conceal… the story is engrossing, but the way the reader is tricked was extremely well done.

毒 is told from the point of view of a child who is too young to understand what is truly going on, but obviously the reader is perfectly aware of what is unfolding. This one was quite spine-chilling.

死の倒影 is another engrossing story that tackles the problem of physiognomy and self-fulfilling prophecy, and the end was really great.

決闘介添人 as a very classic setting and topic (love rivalry), but 紅座の庖厨 was mind-blowing to me. It’s a mix of black humour with what we call body horror today. I was not expecting this at all. These two short story are very different in topics and tone, but I loved them both equally.

灰人 is another interesting one, starting extremely sad, but it has a unique motif with the presence of a dog, which is not just an addition to the story, but a relevant element for the plot, and it stays relevant from beginning to end.

I am in the process of reading pre-war authors of detective fiction, and I have enjoyed everything I have read so far, but Udaru Oshita’s writings have left a much stronger impact on me than anything else. Overall, this collection contains a good panel of Udaru Oshita’s short stories, and I heartily recommend it.