Yumeno Kyūsaku and the Spirit of the Local

ABSTRACT Yumeno Kyūsaku (1889–1936), a leading figure in the genre of henkaku tantei shōsetsu (strange or unorthodox detective fiction), often used strange happenings and a gothic atmosphere to thrill readers. The supernatural spills over into his fictional worlds in the form of bizarre events that force his protagonists to confront the border between sanity and madness. They are tormented by voices, visions, and the inability to discern reality. Unlike many writers, Kyūsaku remained in his hometown, Fukuoka, and he regularly incorporated local events and themes into his work. This article examines how the supernatural and the local are intertwined in two of his texts to critique Japan’s course of modernization and how the tamashii – spirit or soul – of the past changes with the times.