The Inugami Family

After the death of Inugami Sahei, founder of the Inugami zaibatsu and a major Shinshu pharmaceutical magnate, he leaves a highly unusual will: his vast estate will not be divided among his three daughters but will pass to one of his three grandsons—Sukekiyo, Suketake, or Suketomo—on the condition that the heir marries Nonomiya Tamayo, granddaughter of Sahei's benefactor. Once the will is made public, dark currents immediately stir within the Inugami family, and Tamayo, who has long lived as a dependent in the household, becomes the center of every scheme. Before the will is formally read, the lawyer handling the estate senses danger and calls in the famous detective Kindaichi Kosuke, yet murders still occur one after another. The three heirs die in succession, and clues at the scenes point to the family's three heirlooms—the axe, the koto, and the chrysanthemum. The return of the disfigured, masked eldest grandson Sukekiyo, whose identity is shrouded in mystery, makes matters worse. Starting from the Inugami family tree, old grudges, and local legends, Kindaichi Kosuke pursues the truth through a tangled web of blood relations, gradually uncovering a secret that spans many years and two generations. This is one of the most celebrated long novels in the Kindaichi Case Files, ranked third among the series' ten best works, and has been adapted for film and television many times; the 1976 film directed by Ichikawa Kon is regarded as a classic of Japanese cinema.