The Village of Eight Graves

Seishi YokomizoNanhai Publication Company2012

Rating 3.8
Word count
176K words
Chapters
14
Series
Seishi Yokomizo Works · Kindaichi Case Files
ISBN
9787544260602

Tags

Featured Fiction Mystery and Suspense Great DetectiveFamily Secret HistoryHidden LineageSerial MurderMystery NovelsHonkaku MysteryJapanese MysteryJapanese LiteratureFolk Legends

Summary

The Village of Eight Graves is one of the representative full-length works in Seishi Yokomizo's Kindaichi Kosuke series and is regarded, along with The Devil's Ballad, The Demon's Flute, and The Inugami Clan, as a classic of the series. The story takes place in the village of Eight Graves deep in the mountains of San'in: four hundred years ago, eight defeated samurai fled there with treasure and were massacred by greedy villagers; the village took its name from this and has borne a curse passed down through generations. Since then, terrible murders have occurred in the village at intervals. Tatsuya Terada, a young man raised in Kobe, is suddenly told by a messenger from the village that he is actually a descendant of the wealthy Tajimi family of Eight Graves and one of the heirs to the estate. Curious and uneasy about his origins, he returns to his hometown, but after entering the village, eerie deaths occur wherever he goes. The old story of his ancestor Yozo, who went mad more than twenty years earlier and slaughtered thirty-two villagers before disappearing, is also brought up again by the villagers. Is the curse of the samurai ghosts claiming lives, or is someone committing murder in the name of the curse? The famous detective Kindaichi Kosuke is asked to intervene and, together with Tatsuya, investigates the mystery of his origins, the cave legends, and the family money dispute, ultimately exposing a carefully orchestrated serial murder case. Narrated in the first person, the novel fuses folk tales, mountain village customs, and rigorous deduction, and is an important work for understanding the style where the Japanese unconventional school and orthodox school intersect.

Editor's review

横沟正史在日本推理史上的位置很特殊：他把江户川乱步式的怪奇趣味，收束进可以推演的严密结构里，让“恐怖”落地为可解的谜题。《八墓村》正是这种风格的代表作之一——深山、诅咒、大宅、遗产、失踪的先代家长，样样都是怪谈的材料，但横沟并不靠超自然收场，而是让金田一耕助一步步把血脉、金钱与人心还原成动机与手法。本书屡次被改编为电影、电视剧与游戏，是日本改编率最高的经典推理杰作之一，横沟正史本人也把它选入“金田一探案集”十大佳作的第五名。南海出版公司这一版由孙雅甜翻译，忠于日本角川书店原著，属于新经典文化推出的“横沟正史作品·金田一探案集”第二部。对想系统阅读金田一系列、又不想从最厚的几部入手的读者来说，本书节奏紧凑、悬念密集，第一人称叙事带来强烈的代入感，是很合适的入口。读完你会明白，所谓诅咒，往往只是活人留给后人的借口。

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Reading tips

  1. 先读序章“八墓传奇”，记住诅咒的来历与村民的立场，后面每次死亡都能与之对照。
  2. 留意叙述者辰弥的视角局限：他既是侦探的同伴，也是案件的核心当事人，很多“看不见”的地方值得回看。
  3. 中段洞窟与秘道部分信息密集，建议放慢速度，把人物关系与财产关系理一遍再往下读。
  4. 读完可对照《狱门岛》阅读，比较横沟正史处理“封闭村落＋家族宿命”的两种写法。

About the publisher

Nanhai Publication Company China · Founded in 1988

Nanhai Publication Company is a comprehensive publisher known for its literature and arts titles, covering fields such as classical poetry, martial arts fiction, and folk literature. Judging from the more than 1,600 books in the database, the company has released classical poetic works including the Nineteen Old Poems and the Nine Songs, as well as multiple volumes of Huanzhulouzhu's series The Swordsmen of Mount Shu, along with related writings by authors such as Guan Hanqing, Qu Yuan, Zuo Si, and Wang Zhihuan. Its publishing character lies in balancing the organization of classic texts with the dissemination of popular literature, placing poetry anthologies alongside long martial arts novels and presenting a relatively diverse literary profile. Public information is limited, and further details about its editorial practices and series planning remain to be supplemented.

Contents

  1. Prologue The Legend of Eight Graves
  2. 1 The Mystery of His Origins
  3. 2 Hometown
  4. 3 Serial Poisonings
  5. 4 Terror in the Cave
  6. 5 Gods, Buddhas, and Samurai
  7. 6 The Great-Aunt's Disappearance
  8. 7 Noriko
  9. 8 Mother's Love Letters
  10. 9 Midnight Flight
  11. 10 Sister
  12. 11 Love in the Secret Passage
  13. 12 Gold Coins
  14. Epilogue A Wish

FAQ

《八墓村》是金田一探案集的第几部？ 在南海出版公司新经典文化版本中，《八墓村》是“横沟正史作品·金田一探案集”的第二部，前有《本阵杀人事件》，后有《狱门岛》。横沟正史本人曾把它选入该系列十大佳作的第五名。
没读过金田一系列，能直接看这本吗？ 可以。本书故事独立完整，不依赖前作情节，金田一耕助在书中出场较晚，作者也顺带交代了他的形象与办案方式，新读者不会感到断裂。
这本书有恐怖或超自然内容吗？ 书名与氛围带有浓厚的民俗怪谈色彩，诅咒、亡灵、洞窟传说贯穿全书，但横沟正史坚持用现实动机和可推演的手法解释一切，结局落在人事而非鬼神。
不同中译本之间有什么区别？ 已知较早的有湖南人民出版社1986年版、珠海出版社1999年刘红译本，南海出版公司2012年孙雅甜译本依据日本角川书店原著授权，未做删减，是目前流传较广的版本。
书里的八墓村是真实存在的地方吗？ 八墓村是虚构的村落，故事以日本山阴地区的山村为背景想象而成；评论者普遍提到其灵感与日本历史上的屠村惨案有关，但人物与情节均为创作。

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About the author

Seishi Yokomizo Author

Seishi Yokomizo is one of the most representative writers in the history of Japanese detective fiction. His work centers on classic honkaku mystery, and he excelled at layering puzzles within closed villages and tangled family histories. The collection here includes six of his works—The Inugami Family, Gokumon Island, The Devil's Ballad, The Devil Comes Whistling, Village of Eight Tombs, and The Complete Kindaichi Case Files (25 volumes)—showing the enduring influence of his detective series among Chinese-language readers. His stories usually follow the detective Kosuke Kindaichi, weaving the folk atmosphere of postwar rural Japan, the secrets of old families, and bizarre murders into a gloomy yet compelling suspense. Because public information is limited, a full biography and chronology cannot be given in detail, but the available works still show his skill in meticulous plotting and vivid period atmosphere. Classified as premium fiction and suspense mystery, his writing has had a lasting impact on later Japanese mystery literature and screen adaptations.