Popular Culture Review Vol. 12, No. 2, August 2001 | Page 9

Mystery as Poetry, Suicide as Literary Device:
The Works of Seicho Matsumoto1
Seicho Matsumoto’s reputation as a master writer of mysteries and sus
pense reaches far beyond Japan. He has published close to 500 books and short
stories and owned a film company, Kiri Productions, that made movies based on
his own works, many of which are found at video stores in the Asian neighbor
hoods of New York and California. Even though only a handful of his works have
been translated into English (some under Ellery Queen’s various titles), one of his
books, Points and Lines (Ten to Sen), was ranked among the top 50 mystery stories
by the Los Angeles Times (November 23, 1990). Points and Lines is also a phe
nomenal market success, selling more than 1.3 million copies worldwide.
Matsumoto, who died in 1992 (b. 1909), played a pioneering role in the
“Mass Communication Media” movement in Japan (Kokusai Bunka Shinkokai
xxv). Together with other “Postwar Newcomers,” Matsumoto mad Rf