Seichō Matsumoto

Seichō Matsumoto is regarded as the pioneer of Japanese social-school mystery fiction. Born in 1909 in Kokura, Fukuoka Prefecture (present-day Kitakyushu), he left elementary school and worked as a handyman and a printer before joining the Asahi Shimbun, and these experiences at the bottom of society later provided rich material for his writing. In 1953 he won the Akutagawa Prize for A Certain "Kokura Diary". The 1958 novel Points and Lines set off a boom in social-school mystery fiction. His other major works include The Cast of the Sand, Zero no Shōten and The Black Fog of Japan, and Chinese editions of his works also include The Railway Track, The Black Earth and The Water's Flesh. Rather than merely solving puzzles, his writing uses criminal cases to expose social structures and the dark side of human nature; his cold, realistic style has had a profound influence on later mystery literature. He died on August 4, 1992.