{"product_id":"the-village-of-eight-graves-isbn-9781782277453","title":"The Village of Eight Graves","description":"\u003cb\u003eThe 3rd stand-alone in Japan's most popular murder mystery series—after \u003ci\u003eThe Honjin Murders\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eThe Inugami Curse\u003c\/i\u003e—is another fiendish classic featuring investigator Kosuke Kindaichi \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTranslated into English for the first time\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eNestled deep in the mist-shrouded mountains, \u003ci\u003eThe Village of Eight Graves\u003c\/i\u003e takes its name from a bloody legend: in the Sixteenth Century eight samurais, who had taken refuge there along with a secret treasure, were murdered by the inhabitants, bringing a terrible curse down upon their village.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eCenturies later a mysterious young man named Tatsuya arrives in town, bringing a spate of deadly poisonings in his wake. The inimitably scruffy and brilliant Kosuke Kindaichi investigates.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eYokomizo is perhaps the most popular and feted crime writer in his country’s history. His richly atmospheric classic mysteries are a treat for any fan of Golden Age whodunits, taking the reader all over post-war Japan, from remote mountain villages to pirate-plagued islands and the bustling streets of Tokyo. Yokomizo loved to craft ingenious puzzle plots, inspired by the greats of British and American crime, such as John Dickson Carr or Agatha Christie, while his detective, Kosuke Kindaichi, is everything a reader could want from a sleuth: brilliant, eccentric, charming, and unassuming enough to be fatally underestimated by many a murderer. . .\"Kosuke Kindaichi, the scruffy investigating detective, bears more than a passing resemblance to Columbo who made his TV debut in 1971 — which, coincidentally, is when this amusing novel was first published in Japan.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e--\u003ci\u003eThe Sunday Times Crime Club\u003c\/i\u003e (UK)\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"This taut mystery provides an original variation on \u003ci\u003eThe Hound of the Baskervilles…\u003c\/i\u003e Kosuke Kindaichi, Yokomizo’s Columbo-like sleuth, arrives to sort through the tangled puzzle and provide a satisfying solution. Fans of gothic-tinged fair play will be enthralled\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e-- \u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e (starred review)\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\"Wickedly rich and worth every minute... Halfway through, I was already recommending it to my mother, grandfather, basically anyone who loves a good murder mystery!\"\u003cb\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e—Abstract AF!\u003c\/i\u003e blog\u003c\/b\u003eSeishi Yokomizo (1902-81) was one of Japan's most famous and best-loved mystery writers. He was born in Kobe and spent his childhood reading detective stories, before beginning to write stories of his own, the first of which was published in 1921. He went on to become an extremely prolific and popular author, best known for his Kosuke Kindaichi series, which ran to 77 books, selling more than 55 million copies and spawning many stage and television adaptations. \u003ci\u003eThe Honjin Murders\u003c\/i\u003e is the first Kosuke Kindaichi story, and regarded as one of Japan's great mystery novels. It won the first Mystery Writers of Japan Award in 1948 but has never been translated into English, until now. Seishi Yokomizo's \u003ci\u003eThe Inugami Curse\u003c\/i\u003e is also available from Pushkin Vertigo, while \u003ci\u003eGokumon Island\u003c\/i\u003e is forthcoming.PROLOGUE\u003cbr\u003eThe village of Eight Graves is perched amid the desolate\u003cbr\u003emountains on the border of Tottori and Okayama prefectures.\u003cbr\u003eNaturally, arable land is scarce in these parts, and of what little\u003cbr\u003ethere is, most is given over to a small handful of rice paddies\u003cbr\u003edotted around, each measuring only ten or, at most, twenty tsubo,\u003cbr\u003eor about seven hundred square feet. The inhospitable climate\u003cbr\u003emakes for a meagre harvest, and no matter the calls to increase\u003cbr\u003eproduction, the rice paddies yield barely enough to feed the\u003cbr\u003evillagers. Nevertheless, owing to a wealth of other resources,\u003cbr\u003ethe inhabitants there live in relative comfort.\u003cbr\u003eCharcoal-making and cattle-rearing are the main industries\u003cbr\u003ein Eight Graves. The latter is a recent phenomenon, but the\u003cbr\u003eformer has been the villagers’ chief livelihood for generations.\u003cbr\u003eThe mountains that envelop the village stretch all the way to\u003cbr\u003eTottori and are blanketed in various species of oak—blue,\u003cbr\u003esawtooth and jolcham. They grow in such abundance that the\u003cbr\u003eregion has long been famed for its charcoal throughout the\u003cbr\u003ewhole of Kansai.\u003cbr\u003eIn more recent times, however, it is cattle-rearing that has\u003cbr\u003ebecome the village’s main source of revenue: the local breed, the\u003cbr\u003echiya-ushi, serves just as well for working as it does for eating,\u003cbr\u003eand the cattle market at neighbouring Niimi attracts traders\u003cbr\u003efrom far and wide.\u003cbr\u003eEach household in the village is charged with raising ve or\u003cbr\u003esix head of cattle: they aren’t the property of the village farmers,\u003cbr\u003ebut that of the landowners who give the farmers the calves and\u003cbr\u003esell them on when they are fully grown. The proceeds of the\u003cbr\u003esale are then shared between the farmer and the landowner\u003cbr\u003eat a xed rate. Thus, as in any agricultural village, the owners\u003cbr\u003eand the sharefarmers are pitted against one another: in such a\u003cbr\u003emodest settlement as this, there are stark dierences in fortune.\u003cbr\u003eIn Eight Graves, there are two wealthy houses: the Tajimis\u003cbr\u003eand the Nomuras. Since the Tajimi family is situated in the east\u003cbr\u003eof the village, they are known as “The House of the East”, while,\u003cbr\u003eby the same stroke of reasoning, the Nomura family is known\u003cbr\u003eas “The House of the West”.\u003cbr\u003eBut a mystery remains: the origin of the village’s name…\u003cbr\u003eInured to it across generations, those who have been born\u003cbr\u003eand laid their bones to rest there will scarcely have given a\u003cbr\u003esecond thought to this bizarre name. But outsiders will wonder\u003cbr\u003eat hearing it for the rst time. There must be a story there,\u003cbr\u003ethey’ll think. And indeed, a story there is—and a strange one.\u003cbr\u003eTo tell it, we must go back some 380 years, all the way to the\u003cbr\u003eAge of Warring States…\u003cbr\u003eOn 6th July, in the year 1566, when the great daimyo Yoshihisa\u003cbr\u003eAmago yielded to his enemy Motonari Mori and surrendered\u003cbr\u003ethe Tsukiyama Castle, one of his young samurai refused to give\u003cbr\u003ehimself up and ed the castle with seven faithful retainers.\u003cbr\u003eLegend has it that, in the hope of continuing their struggle\u003cbr\u003eanother day, they saddled three horses with 3,000 tael of gold\u003cbr\u003eand, after enduring many hardships, fording rivers and crossing\u003cbr\u003emountains, nally arrived at this very village.\u003cbr\u003eTo begin with, the villagers received the eight warriors hospitably\u003cbr\u003eenough. Put at ease by this reception and the villagers’\u003cbr\u003esimple ways, the warriors decided to stay in the village for a time,\u003cbr\u003edonning peasant clothes and even taking up charcoal-making.\u003cbr\u003eFortunately, the deep mountain terrain oered plenty of\u003cbr\u003espots in which to take refuge, should the need ever arise.\u003cbr\u003eBecause of limestone deposits throughout the area, there were\u003cbr\u003ecaves, which also provided convenient hiding places. There\u003cbr\u003ewere a great number of these caves and grottoes down in the\u003cbr\u003evalley, some so deep and labyrinthine that no one had dared\u003cbr\u003eto explore their furthest reaches. If ever you were pursued, you\u003cbr\u003ecould easily hide yourself away there. Doubtless it was precisely\u003cbr\u003ethis geography that led the eight warriors to decide to make\u003cbr\u003ethe village their temporary abode.\u003cbr\u003eSix months passed in peace and harmony, without any trouble\u003cbr\u003ebetween the villagers and the eight samurai. Meanwhile,\u003cbr\u003ehowever, Mori’s men had redoubled their eorts, for the leader\u003cbr\u003eof the fugitives was famous even in the Amago clan, and who\u003cbr\u003eknew what terrible calamity might yet come to pass if he were\u003cbr\u003eleft alive to ght another day. At last, their search for the eight\u003cbr\u003emen led them to these very mountains.\u003cbr\u003eThe villagers sheltering the fugitives gradually began to\u003cbr\u003efear for their own lives. Not only that, but the glittering reward\u003cbr\u003eoered by Mori’s men was also enough to make them rethink\u003cbr\u003etheir hospitality. What tempted the villagers most, however, was\u003cbr\u003ethe 3,000 tael of gold that had supposedly been carried on\u003cbr\u003ehorseback. If only they could kill the fugitives, every last one of\u003cbr\u003ethem, then no one else would ever know about the gold. Even\u003cbr\u003eif Mori’s men did happen to know about it, even if they were\u003cbr\u003elooking for it, all the villagers had to do was insist that they\u003cbr\u003ehadn’t ever heard about it, let alone seen anything of the kind.\u003cbr\u003eThere were many discussions about this, but eventually\u003cbr\u003ethe day came when, having reached a consensus, the villagers\u003cbr\u003etook the eight samurai by surprise. It happened when the men\u003cbr\u003ewere in a hut, burning wood to make charcoal. The villagers\u003cbr\u003esurrounded it and, in order to block the men’s escape, set fire\u003cbr\u003eto dried grass on three sides. The youngest and strongest then\u003cbr\u003eburst into the hut, brandishing bamboo spears and hatchets\u003cbr\u003eordinarily used for tree-cutting. The era had been plagued by\u003cbr\u003ewars, you see, and had instilled the art of warfare even in the\u003cbr\u003epeasantry.\u003cbr\u003eThe samurai were caught o guard. They had trusted the\u003cbr\u003evillagers absolutely and this unprovoked attack came like a\u003cbr\u003ebolt from the blue. There were no weapons in that little hut, of\u003cbr\u003ecourse, so they had to defend themselves as best they could with\u003cbr\u003ebillhooks and axes, but the odds were stacked against them and\u003cbr\u003eit was a losing battle. One fell, then another, and another… until\u003cbr\u003eat last the tragic moment came when all eight of them lay slain.\u003cbr\u003eThe villagers decapitated every one of the bodies and, with\u003cbr\u003ecries of triumph, set re to the hut: but according to legend,\u003cbr\u003ethose eight severed heads wore an expression of such tremendous\u003cbr\u003ereproach that it made anyone who saw them shudder in\u003cbr\u003efear. The leader of the eight samurai above all retained the terrifying\u003cbr\u003elook he had worn as he lay there dying, hacked to pieces\u003cbr\u003eby the villagers and drowning in his own blood; with his last\u003cbr\u003ebreath, he had cursed the village, vowing to visit his vengeance\u003cbr\u003eupon it for seven generations to come.\u003cbr\u003eAlthough the heads secured for the villagers the promised\u003cbr\u003ebounty from the Mori clan, they were never able to nd where\u003cbr\u003ethe all-important 3,000 tael of gold had been hidden. They\u003cbr\u003ehunted for it high and low, in a frenzy, uprooting grass, boring\u003cbr\u003ethrough sheer rock, tearing up the valley, but never did they nd\u003cbr\u003eso much as a speck of gold. Worse still, during their searches, a\u003cbr\u003eseries of ominous events occurred: one man met his tragic end,\u003cbr\u003etrapped by a cave-in in the depths of a grotto; another, while\u003cbr\u003edrilling the rock face, caused a landslide and lost his footing,\u003cbr\u003efalling to the bottom of a ravine, leaving him lame for the rest\u003cbr\u003eof his days; and a third man, who was digging the earth at the\u003cbr\u003eroots of a tree, was horribly crushed under the weight of the\u003cbr\u003etrunk that suddenly collapsed on top of him.\u003cbr\u003eMysterious happenings such as these followed one after\u003cbr\u003eanother, but what came next plunged the villagers into an\u003cbr\u003eabyss of terror.\u003cbr\u003eSix months had passed since the massacre of the eight\u003cbr\u003esamurai. Who can say why, but that year there were a great\u003cbr\u003emany thunderstorms in the region, bringing with them terrible\u003cbr\u003ebolts of lightning: frightened, the villagers saw in this a sign of\u003cbr\u003ethe eight warriors’ curse. One day, the lightning struck a cedar\u003cbr\u003ein the garden of Shozaemon Tajimi, splitting the great tree in\u003cbr\u003etwo with tremendous force, right down to its very roots. Now,\u003cbr\u003ethe curious thing was that this Shozaemon Tajimi had been the\u003cbr\u003eringleader of the attack on the warriors, and, since that day, he\u003cbr\u003ehad been plagued by remorse and had begun to act strangely,\u003cbr\u003etyrannizing his family and doing things that nobody in his\u003cbr\u003eright mind would do. Then the lightning struck the tree… He\u003cbr\u003eseized a sword lying nearby and struck dead several members\u003cbr\u003eof his own household. Then, running out into the street, one\u003cbr\u003eby one he felled every villager he came across, before nally\u003cbr\u003etaking refuge in the mountains, where he ended his life by\u003cbr\u003eself-decapitation.\u003cbr\u003eAll in all, there were more than a dozen wounded, but exactly\u003cbr\u003eseven had died by Shozaemon’s hand. Counting Shozaemon\u003cbr\u003ehimself, that made a grand total of eight deaths, which, rightly\u003cbr\u003eor wrongly, the villagers fearfully interpreted as another act of\u003cbr\u003eretribution from those eight warriors who had been murdered\u003cbr\u003ein cold blood.\u003cbr\u003eIn order to appease their fury, the villagers decided to disinter\u003cbr\u003ethe bodies of the eight samurai, whom they had buried\u003cbr\u003elike dogs, and to reinter them with all due ceremony, erecting\u003cbr\u003eeight graves where they were venerated as divinities. Of course,\u003cbr\u003eit was this shrine in the hills behind the village that lent the\u003cbr\u003eplace its current name.Kosuke Kindaichi investigates a series of gruesome murders in a remote village – another classic murder mystery, from one of Japan’s greatest crime writers","brand":"Pushkin Vertigo","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46303540510949,"sku":"NP9781782277453","price":17.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9781782277453.jpg?v=1767742082","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/products\/the-village-of-eight-graves-isbn-9781782277453","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}