The Asia-Pacific Journal | Japan Focus Volume 17 | Issue 6 | Number 6 | Article ID 5269 | Mar 15, 2019

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A Marxist Sherlock Holmes: Itō Ken and the ProletarianDetective in 1920s Shanghai

Edwin Michielsen

Abstract

Itō Ken (1895-1945), a proletarian writer,stated in 1930 that his collection of shortstories Shanhai Yawa (Shanghai Night Stories)was intended to be a “detective and proletarianlike popular novel.” But how can a proletarianwriter with a Marxist worldview change an a-political genre such as the detective story intoa weapon of proletarian literature? Could aMarxist detective reveal the crimes of capital?Examining Itō’s journalistic articles and fictionwithin the context of mass media and detectivefiction, I aim to show how Itō Ken tried torework the detective genre into a form ofproletarian literature.

Keywords: Itō Ken (1895-1945), proletarianliterature, Shanghai, detective fiction, EdogawaRanpō, Hirabayashi Hatsunosuke

Introduction

When I published Arishima Takeo no geijutsu toshōgai [The Art and Life of Arishima Takeo] inTaisho 15 [1926] a change in my life andthinking came about. Therefore, I’m submergedin research on history and science. I wrotemainly detective novels and proletarian popularnovels. In Showa 2 [1927], to cleanse my lifeand love, I went to Shanghai. Here I have metvarious Marxists and bohemians from aroundthe world. […] I went to China again. This timefinally, I captured the ideology. In that time, Itried to write a detective and proletarian like

popular novel [tantei shōsetsu to puroretaria-teki tsūzoku shōsetsu]. The setting is mainlybetween Shanghai and every country in theworld. Shanghai Yawa [Shanghai Night Stories]published by Heibonsha in Showa 4 [1929] isthe [result] of this attempt.1

Reflecting on his time spent in Shanghai, theproletarian writer Itō Ken (1895-1945) sharesin a short biographical essay called “Ima madeno michi” (The Road until Now, 1930) hisattempt to merge two seemingly opposinggenres, detective literature and proletarianliterature. He is seriously considering how topopularize proletarian literature in order toreach a broad readership informing them onclass struggles. The choice for detectiveliterature in the late 1920s seems obviousconsidering that this was among the mostpopular genres. 2 However, how can aproletarian writer with a Marxist worldviewchange an a-political genre such as thedetective story into a weapon of proletarianliterature? Could a Marxist detective reveal thecrimes of capital?

In this paper, I aim to show how Itō Ken triedto rework the detective genre into a form ofproletarian literature. First, I will historicizeItō’s work by analyzing his contemporaryHirabayashi Hatsunosuke’s (1892-1931)theoretical essays on detective literature.Hirabayashi was active as a journalist, sharedan interest in Marxism and wrote andtranslated detective stories. However, it is notmy attempt to redefine the detective novel as agenre or engage with the large body of postwarscholarship on detective fiction. Rather, I willattempt to foreground Itō’s understanding of

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detective stories and the relation betweendetective fiction, journalism and proletarianculture in 1920s and early 1930s Japan.Concerning journalism, I will examine Itō’sjournalistic and reportage pieces vital forunderstanding his work as a writer in generaland in particular his fictional stories onShanghai published as Shanhai Yawa (ShanghaiNight Stories) in 1929, of which I will analyseone story in detail. For Itō, detectives andjournalism seem to supplement each other incases where the detective takes its contentfrom media events and news, and journalismadapts the suspense and sensation of thedetective novel.3

Examining Itō’s short story collection ShanghaiNight Stories in conjunction with his non-fictionwritings on Shanghai, I argue that Itōattempted to elevate the detective novel to apolitical tool by placing it within a proletarianframework, at the same time keeping thesuspense and entertainment which allowed himto compete with popular literature of his time.The focus on class antagonism pushes hischaracters to move away from the familiar sitesof Shanghai to off-grid locations to reveal theunevenness of wealth distribution, theexploitation of proletarians and the crimescommitted by capitalists.

Although Takeuchi Mizuho considers Itō’sattempt to write proletarian detective fiction afailure,4 I conclude that through a mix ofdetective, journalism and reportage Itōsuccessfully opened up the possibility of a“detective and proletarian like popular novel,”that might spur readers to support theproletarian cause. In other words, we canconsider Itō’s attempt as one of the firstdetective novels exploring the nature of societyproducing “criminals” or victims of capitalismwhich postwar “social detective writers”(shakhaiha) such as Matsumoto Seichō(1909-1992) fully incorporated in their stories.5

Dissecting the Detective Novel andHirabayashi Hatsunosuke

Writing during a period of rapid capitalistdevelopment after the great Kantō earthquakein 1923, Hirabayashi Hatsunosuke located therise of the detective novel in modernity and itsscientific rationality.6 He writes:

For the development of thedetective novel, standardizedsocial conditions are necessary. Aslong as a standardized socialenvironment is not present, therewill be no detective novel. Thosesocial or environmental conditionsa r e b r o a d l y s p e a k i n g t h edevelopment of a scientif iccivilization, the intellect, and ananalytical mind. And strictlyspeaking, the crime and the way ofsearching become scientific, thearrest and the trial are held on thebasis of reliable proof, and writtenlaws preserve the order of thestate.7

For Hirabayashi a central aspect of thedetective novel is scientific rationality. Heargues that the detective story could not attainpopularity before the 1920s in Japan becausereaders were not yet trained to deal with thescience of the detective since Japaneseideology was too long nurtured in anunscientific environment. Further, it isinteresting to note that Hirabayashi connectsthe legal system with the order of the statesuggesting that the state is complicit indeciding who and what to criminalize as a wayto legitimize its own ruling power.

Besides such institutions as the court,Hirabayashi connects the rise of the detectivenovel to the broader context of science andcapitalist development penetrating everydaylife. If a detective story depicts a town like

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Chiba as its setting and discusses a millionairewidow as one of its inhabitants, this will failbecause one can easily verify that no suchwidow was living in Chiba.8 However, from the1920s onward, with the rebuilding of Tokyoafter the earthquake and the increase of aneducated middle class living crammed togetherbut alienated and disconnected from eachother, the perfect potential crime scenesemerged.

Hirabayashi continues that with the progress ofcivi l ization improving scientif ic andmethodological reasoning, together withcapitalist development centralizing wealth andcreating various daily life phenomena of wealthand luxury, the ideal environment emerges fordetective stories to attract readers.9 Itō Kenlikewise recognized a “scientification” ofliterature and arts as well as a growing interestamong authors in science. Authors such asDostoevsky, Tolstoy, Ibsen, and Wilde explored“abnormal psychology” (hentai shinri), inparticular by dissecting the minds of the lowerclasses. According to Itō, the detective novel isone kind of science novel (kagaku shōsetsu)depicting crime psychology of the lowerclasses.10

In 1929, Hirabayashi wrote that journals andnewspapers have embraced the detectivegenre.11 Now that the detective novel has beensuccessfully included in mainstream literature,he lists the important ingredients totallingeleven points necessary for a good detectivestory. Among these eleven are the skills of“psychological analysis” (1), “observation” and(2) “wild imagination” (6). In addition, hevalues detective stories engaging with a widearray of “scientific subjects” (3) together with“politics and economics” (4), and a sufficientsense of reality (10). And most importantly forour discussion on Itō Ken, a murder case doesnot have to be the central theme of the story(11).12 Following these points, Hirabayashi wasamong the first to recognize Edogawa Ranpō(1894-1965) as a successful detective writer

with potential. However, Hirabayashi alsonoticed certain “unhealthy” (fukenzen) aspectsin Edogawa’s work diverging from Europeanand Anglo-American detectives such as acertain darkness and abnormality (hentai). Hecharacterized Edogawa’s style as popular(tsūzokuteki) caused by current journalisticpreoccupation with decadent, sickening andgrotesque themes. This is relevant for us as ItōKen himself was a journalist for the journalHentai shinri (Abnormal Psychology) and had aparticular interest in hentai and ero-guro-nansensu which I will discuss in more detailbelow to show that proletarian authors such asItō who were trying to write detective storieshave more in common with the now best-knowndetective writer Edogawa Ranpō than iscommonly recognized.13

Finally, from a Marxist perspective Hirabayashilocated a potential danger between journalism,technology, detective stories, and the alienatedmasses on the one hand and capitalism on theother. He explains that through newtechnological possibilities the marketdetermines the direction of journalism - oftenthe basis for detective stories such as murdersbased on true stories (jitsuwa) – which shapesthe dominant ideology of the masses. Thesedetective stories play with the fears of thealienated middle-class for the unknown. Anyonein society can potentially be a criminal. Onlywith a Marxist lens, Hirabayashi argued, willthe writer of detective stories be capable ofpushing the genre in directions that reveal thereal problems of society. 1 4 However,Hirabayashi warned proletarian writers to beaware that the dominant journalism determineswhat is of value in market terms. Just asjournalism shapes bourgeois literature,proletarian literature views literature as acommodity (shōhin). In this view, potentialvalue that can be extracted from thecommodity moves journalism. According toHirabayashi proletarian literature is noexception and operates within the logic of themarket. Not only does journalism reflects the

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demands of readers, in fact it produces theirdemands.15 Itō Ken himself voiced this conflictbetween proletarian critiques of the marketand market value when he wrote in “The Roaduntil Now”, “I’ll write everything for money”honestly acknowledging that proletarianwriters too have to earn an income tosurvive.16 This tension is often present in Itō’swritings blurring sensation, orientalism, ero-grotesque and Marxist class criticism in orderto balance the demands of the market with theaims of proletarian literature.

Itō Ken reporting Shanghai

From the Meiji period (1868-1912) onward,Shanghai gradually became a reoccurring tropein Japanese literature. Nagai Kafū (1879-1959)in 1898 become one of the first to publish ashort travelogue about his visit to Shanghai.After him, canonical writers such as TanizakiJunichirō (1886-1965), Akutagawa Ryūnosuke(1892-1927), and Yokomitsu Riichi (1898-1947)as well as lesser known authors such asMuromatsu Shōfū (1889-1961), MaedakōHiroichirō (1888-1957), and Eisuke Yoshiyuki(1906-1940) vis ited and wrote aboutShanghai.17 Under the Japanese EmpireShanghai was one of the important sites forJapanese capital to invest in industries such astextile factories. By the late 1920s, Japanesecitizens formed the largest group of foreigninhabitants to the extent that Shanghai waso f t e n t r e a t e d a s a J a p a n e s eprovince.18 Japanese did not need a passport orvisa to enter Shanghai, which for people livingin Nagasaki, was much closer than Tokyo.Newspapers in Nagasaki reported daily onevents in Shanghai and letters sent from Japanto Shanghai bearing the address Nagasakiprefecture Shanghai city (Nagasaki-ken,Shanghai-shi), would arrive without aproblem.19

For some authors such as Akutagawa,

searching for an ancient China in the classicshe had studied, Shanghai was an unpleasantcity spoiled by rapid modernization. But forothers Shanghai was a place to escape to andfind freedom away from the stress and pressureof life in Japan proper. In addition, the politicalinstability in China and the cosmopolitan allureof Shanghai attracted many Japanese writers.This instability made Shanghai appear as alawless free-zone inviting crime, drugsmuggling, and prostitution creating the imageof “mato” (evil city) among Japanese writersand media. For example, Muramatsu Shofū, acolleague of Itō Ken, wrote a novel aboutShanghai with the title Mato (Evil City, 1924).Muramatsu’s Evil City was important inshaping Shanghai’s image in Japaneseliterature. He often expressed this concept of“evil city” through his depiction of Shanghai asa city of total freedom and sexual pleasure.

In late July 1927, two months after Chiang Kai-shek’s coup d’état which ended the SecondUnited Front between the GMD and CCP, Itōboarded the sh ip Nagasak i -maru toShanghai.20 In the following four months, Itōmet many different people. He visited theUchiyama bookstore,21 was introduced byMuramatsu to famous Chinese writers such asTian Han (1898-1968) and met other Japanesevisitors or residents. Itō wrote three newspaperarticles about the people he met in Shanghai.He writes in the third article that, “I looked likea native-born Chinese and went to placeswhere normal Japanese would not go. There Ibecame friends with people from all over theworld and from various classes. I plan to meetthese people again in my novel(s).”22 Havingseen the famous spots of Shanghai, Itō alsovisited places not mentioned in guidebooks andunknown to his readers to investigate the livesof proletarians. He learned about Shanghaifrom people he met as he gathered informationfor his fictional work.

Itō felt alive in Shanghai and the city energizedhim. He described Shanghai as a “…city which

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has a big belly, but its heart has the shape of ahundred-headed snake.”23 For Itō, Shanghaiwas the only international city in the Eastbecause of its large foreign and diversepopulation.24 However, at the same time Itōacknowledges the “evil city” and the dark sideof Shanghai. He writes in one of his articlesthat, “[w]hen I walk through the city ofShanghai, especially when you go near theriverbank of Shiliupu (here you have theshabby smugglers and nests of gangsters, andthe whorehouses with inflamed noses fortwenty sen each), and only here can you seesyphilis patients and perverts. Even the dogshave syphilis. Really.”25 Although one cannotdeny that Itō somewhat sensationally describedthe dark side of Shanghai and portrayed it asan “evil city” following Muramatsu, he isconvinced that he had to investigate and toreport all the evils of the city to show how thebourgeoisie exploits the proletariat and tochange the distorted view Japanese have ofChina.26 After coming back to Japan, Itōcontinued to write journalistic pieces as well asshort stories about the city which he eventuallypublished in 1929 as Shanhai yawa (ShanghaiNight Stories).

From the point of view of proletarian writerswho were eager to critique Shin-kankakuha(New-Sensationalist) opponents such asYokomitsu Riichi - whose novel Shanhai(Shanghai, 1931) is now the canonical work onShanghai – for fail ing to address coreproblematics of Shanghai, namely capitalistexploitation and how to resist it. Itō Kencriticized Yokomitsu’s work writing that bothYokomitsu Riichi and Eisuke Yoshiyuki wroteabout Shanghai, but without talking about theChina problem.27 In addition, Itō was satisfiedwith almost no work on Shanghai. He wrote ofhis colleague Muramatsu that he is a bourgeoisChina connoisseur neglecting the proletarianclass in his novel Evil City. In a 1932 article“Shinatsū Dangi Ge” (Discussion of ChineseConnoisseurs Part 2) published in YomiuriShinbun, Itō wrote:

“You [Muramatsu] like China somuch. However, that is because toyou China always appears as amysterious country, as a largecountry with easy-going people.You are part of the curiosity-seeking group, and you do not lookat the lives other than those of thebourgeoisie and petit-bourgeoisie.Even if you are in Shanghai you donot talk about the trade union, andeven when you go to SouthernChina you do not look at theHailufeng (Kairikuhō) Sovieto rgan i zed by the peasan tmovement.28 You are interested inthe Chinese military government,but you do not problematize theclass struggle. That is becauseMuramatsu -kun i s a Chinaconnoisseur who has a verybourgeois-like Chinese view.”29

Not only was Muramatsu the target of Ito’scritique, he attacks other writers such asTanizaki , Akutagawa and Satō Haruo(1892-1964) for being more interested inancient Chinese culture and lacking an interestin contemporary China and its struggles.30 Forproletarian writers, Shanghai contained arevolutionary potential embedded in thestruggle between the CCP and the GMD whichinspired them to use the city for their stories.However, Itō also critiqued proletariancolleagues such as Maedakō and SatomuraKinzō (1902-1945) whom he accused of beingpoorly informed about the political situation inChina.31

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Itō Ken wearing Chinese clothes during hisstay in Shanghai. Itō Ken, “Shanhai nisshiyori," Bungei Jihō 45 (1927): 3.

Then what constituted a perfect depiction oflate 1920s Shanghai for Itō? In order to betterunderstand the context of Ito’s Shanghai NightStories , it is important to examine hisjournalistic work on Shanghai as a proletarianreporter. Itō’s articles on Shanghai cover awide range of topics dealing with food, clothingand fashion, the publishing world, politics,crime, to name a few. Besides these articles, Itōalso tells his readers what books and studies onShanghai and China are worth reading.32 Thisshows that he thoroughly examined Shanghaifrom various angles as well as locating it in thelarger context of late 1920s China.

Itō also reported on crime and homicides inShanghai. For instance, in his article “Kokusaitoshi Shanhai no satsujin jiken” (A homicide inthe international city Shanghai) published in

the popular journal Fujin Kōron (Women’sReview), Itō wrote about a murder committedby a man of Japanese-Portuguese origins whokilled a proletarian Chinese woman and senther corpse to Japan. Like a detective, Itōreconstructed the murder within a referentialgrid mentioning all the places and street namesin Shanghai relevant to the crime. This createda sense of recognition among readers many ofwhom had visited Shanghai or knew theseplaces from articles and photographs publishedfrequently in the media.33 Adding to this systemof reference pictures of the suspect and victim,Itō analysed the murder in utmost detail givingall the exact times of each event until themurder and uses a scientific approach to probethe background and subconscious of thecriminal. Finally, Itō summarized the entireevent as if a “detective novel” (tanteishōsetsufū) blurring the distinction betweenjournalism and fiction.34

Similarly, in another article, “Mato no himitsuchizu” (Secret Map of Evil Cities), Itō discussedthree cities, Shanghai as the city of criminals,Nanjing as the city of villains, and Harbin asthe city of spies. In his description of Shanghaifollowing the approach of contemporary guidebooks (see figure 3 & 4), Itō combinedanecdotes of crimes at famous locations suchas the Golden Bridge, the horse race, andNanjing Road, with actual photographs of theselocations to insert meaning into these locationsas sites of crime (see figure 2). In doing so,readers started to associate these prominentlocations in Shanghai with crime creating areferential system useful for Itō’s detectivestories on Shanghai.35

These two articles, among many others,contributed to a referential system of Shanghaiin Itō’s own work. That is, as in figure 2, Itō’sdetective stories and journalism contain mutualreferences of events and locations in Shanghaimixing fiction and reality. As a result, readers’perception of Shanghai was formed by suchreferences and they associated localities in

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Shanghai with characteristics presented byauthors such as Itō. Moreover, Itō’s writingswere connected to the larger referential systemof Shanghai in the Japanese media andliterature of the late 1920s and early ‘30s suchas the guidebook shown in figure 3. Notsurprisingly, Fujita Tomohiro states in thecommentary of a published collected volume ofJapanese detective stories set in Shanghai, that“rather than the detective stories withShanghai as setting, it is the true stories andreports covering Shanghai, that contributed tothe image of [Shanghai] as a ‘city like adetective novel.’”36 Moreover, Takeuchi statesthat Itō’s Shanghai Night Stories was shelvedas a reportage work on the history andgeography shelf and that this mistake waslikely due to Muramatsu’s reportage work onShanghai.37

Above Itō's article "Mato no himitsuchizu" linking images of popular localities

in Shanghai with stories of crime.

Below, guidebook Shanhai annai(Shanghai Guide,1927) describing popularlocalities in Shanghai supplemented withimages. These images invoke amongreaders associations of crime based onnarratives from sensational crimejournalism and detective stories.

A map of Shanghai in Shanhai Annai(Shanghai Guide,1927). Combininggeographical maps with descriptions andimages of popular localities of Shanghaiformed a system of referentiality forreaders linked to descriptions of the samelocalities in sensational crime journalism

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and detective stories.

The Proletarian Detective in Shanghai andShanghai Night Stories

As mentioned in the introduction, Itō Ken wrotein his biographical piece that Shanghai NightStories was intended to be a “detective likepopular proletarian novel.” After thepublication, Itō further elaborated in anewspaper article titled “Tantei shōsetsu noshinhōkō – puro tantei shōsetsu shutsugen nokiun –” (The New Direction of the DetectiveNovel – An Opportunity for the Appearance of aProletarian Detective Novel) in the Shin-Aichinewspaper that current bourgeois detectivenovels lack a class critique and do not questionwhy criminals become criminals.38 Moreover,the criminals in these novels are proletarianfigures and their arrest only serves to securebourgeois profits. According to Itō a proletariandetective novel instead needs to depict the livesof proletarians before they break laws as wellas their engagement in strikes. Finally, hestates that the real criminals are the capitalistsand the detective needs to reveal their crimesusing proletarian science.39

From this article, we can better understandItō’s intentions and the framework of thenarrative in Shanghai Night Stories. Itō seemsuninterested in writing stories following thelogic of detective fiction proper which onlyfocuses on how to catch the criminal, hencedistracting the reader from considering whycriminals exist in society in the first place.Instead, Itō wants to show how and whycapitalist society creates criminals. Thesecriminals are often forced to commit crimes todeal with their poverty and to make a living. Inaddition, Itō often shows in his stories how thepolitical system in power deliberatelycriminalizes its opponents through theinstitutionalized legal system which allows theruling class to arrest these “criminals.” Itōexplains that these “criminals” are not the real

“criminals”; rather the political system itself isthe criminal.40

Shanghai Night Stories was not Itō’s firstattempt to write proletarian detective fiction.Itō wrote several short stories either presentedas detective stories (tantei shōsetsu) orcontaining crimes, mysteries, and spies whichcould be read within detective fiction of the1920s such as his “Tantei shōsetsu – Bakuhatsusuru kaban” (Detective fiction – The explodingsuitcase, 1926). Many of these stories takeplace in Shanghai or deal with China. The factthat many of Itō’s stories are set abroad, morespecifically in areas either part of or within thesphere of influence of the Japanese empire, wasquite common for detective stories written inthe 1920s and ‘30s. Itō aimed to examineexploitation by the Japanese empire and urgedhis fellow Japanese proletarian writers tobecome more “international” in their writingsand their own lives to overcome their “islandnature.” 41 In a special issue of the journalShuka titled “Tantei shōsetsu no Ajia taiken”(The Asian experience of detective fiction,1999), the editors write that Japanese detectivefiction contains many international storiesbecause the most popular detective journal inprewar Japan, Shinseinen (New Youth), had aparticular interest in Japanese detective storiesset abroad, many detective writers hadexperience abroad, and the “wild imagination”of “non-realist” writers was facing “outward”rather than toward the “domestic.”42 Therefore,for Itō it was important to consider such trendswhen writing his Shanghai Night Stories inorder to compete with non-proletariandetective stories.

Itō’s Shanghai Night Stories (see figure 5)consist of thirteen stories about Shanghai andtakes place after the 1926 coup d’état by themilitary forces of Chiang Kai-shek.43 Itō hadpublished three stories separately before hewrote the rest of the stories specifically forShanghai Night Stories. Although every storycan be read as a separate short story, several

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characters appear repeatedly such as the twomain Japanese protagonists Shimura and Yitō(old spelling and in katakana) as well as theJapanese born Italian Old Man (Itaria no oyaji).This reappearance of characters creates asense of interconnectedness among the storiesand allows one to read the stories as a largernarrative.44 Moreover, using the katakanaspelling of Itō’s own name further blurs the linebetween his journalism and fiction.

Cover Shanghai Night Stories by NakajimaMatsuji (date unknown)

When comparing Itō’s Shanghai Night Storieswith Hirabayashi’s requirements for writing agood detective story, the commentaries by anddialogues between characters containscientific, political, and economical dimensions.Further, the mysterious characters and grimsituations depicted in the stories resemble the“psycho log ica l ana lys i s” and “wi ldimagination.” Therefore, Ito’s stories werelikely to have been considered detective storiesin the 1920 and ‘30s. Takeuchi states thatdetective tricks are absent in Itō’s detectivestories as Marxist doctrine has no puzzles andis clear about who the villain is.45 However,halfway through the book we see that Itō triesto engage with tricks in the stories “Sottō shitabishōjo”, (The beautiful girl who fainted),“Ganzō ginka to Shina musume” (Counterfeit

silver and a Chinese girl), and “Hokuro wo suruhanashi” (A Story about Stealing Moles). Eachstory involves a trick; either a missing itembeing found, people tricked with counterfeitmoney, or tricks involving facial changes. Aninteresting fact is that “Sottō shita bishōjo” and“Hokuro wo suru hanashi” were also publishedseparately in the popular magazine FujinKōron, the same journal in which Itō publishedsome of his articles. Nevertheless, these storieslack a clear depiction of class antagonism andtherefore are considered the least proletarianin Shanghai Night Stories.

If we consider Itō’s protagonist detectives(often also the narrator), then Shimura and Yitōare not\ more than amateur detectives asopposed to private detectives such as SherlockHomes. This is not uncommon as Edogawa’sdetective Akechi Kogorō too started as anamateur.46 Both Yitō and Shimaru in ShanghaiNight Stories are new temporary residents inShanghai which makes it difficult for them toengage in detective work without any personalconnections. Rather than being professionaldetectives, they introduce themselves asnovelists collecting data, interviewing people,and exploring the famous and unknownlocalities of Shanghai in detail to informreaders of current class struggles. Takeuchistates that the detective is absent in Itō’sstories as there are no cases to solve, butinstead it is the proletarian novelist himselfwho probes the social meaning of thecases.47 Adding to this, we could say that theproletarian detective is not physically embodiedin a human being, but rather woven into thenarrative itself. In other words, the narrationcreates a detective-like suspense taking thereader step by step through the process ofexposing and solving the crimes of capitalism.

Yitō and Shimura write pieces of proletarianreportage literature forming an interconnecteddetective narrative. Each story is a piece of apuzzle that reveals a tiny part of the hugecrimes committed by capitalism and all the

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stories together reveal the ongoing process ofdisclosing and capturing the criminalsresponsible.

Itō added a layer of reportage to his stories byengaging with references of Shanghai seen inhis own articles as well as in other mediaresulting in a strong appeal to the “popular”(tsūzoku).48 Itō’s Shanghai Night Stories oftenopen with a description of the area usingmarkers such as street names and landmarks tocreate the setting for the story. In addition, theusage of real names of establishments andpeople connect the story with other media suchas guidebooks and newspapers. Referentialityalso functions through the association ofcharacters with establishments or activitiestaking place within the urban space ofShanghai. Simultaneously, Itō challenges thesame referentiality as characters such asShimura and Yitō aim to investigate theunknown parts of proletarian life. These partslack referentiality because they are ignored inliterature and other media. This forces thenarrator to explain the area to the reader inorder to connect it to the existing grid ofreferences. How then do the stories engagewith referentiality between the known andunknown areas?

After having established this clear andrecognizable map of reference for his readerslinked to the meta-referential of his otherworks and the interconnectedness with othermedia on Shanghai, Itō’s protagonists areeager to break with this referentiality anddeviate from the well-known locations on themap producing suspense. Walking gives thecharacters a certain agency that vehiclescannot give. This agency through walkingallows characters to stop and turn wheneverthey like or access areas which vehicles cannotenter such as narrow alleys. Characters such asShimura and Yitō use their agency to movefreely through Shanghai and deviate from theexisting grid. They walk through places whereneither public transport nor (motorized)

vehicles could bring them and visit areas whichare not on maps or in guidebooks. A lot of theseareas are alien to tourists, foreigners, ortemporary visitors and even locals from otherareas avoid these areas. The proletarian classlives in these areas without facilities orentertainment and is considered dangerous orunhygienic. Shimura and Yitō, however,deliberately visit these parts of Shanghai inorder to record them in their fiction as well asto report about the problems that theproletariat encounters. Both known andunknown parts of Shanghai appear in ShanghaiNight Stories and Itō tries to connect the two.In order to overcome the gap between the two,unknown parts are either described in detailmaking them known and creating thepossibility of being added to the grid or knownparts in the vicinity of the unknown aredescribed as linking the two together.

In story number eight of Shanghai NightStories, called “Dōraku kurabu no chikashitsu”(The basement of the debauchery club),Shimura the novelist meets with a recentlyacquainted doctor called B. Doctor B has anEnglish-Chinese background and he hasstudied medicine in Japan and Germany. Heoften speaks a mix of four languages depictinghim as an international character. Thepronunciation script next to kanji oftenamplifies this internationality by using Chineseand English pronunciations written in katakanainstead of the Japanese pronunciation. Doctor Band Shimura met in the proletarian quarters ofNanshi at a workers’ bar where mainly cooliesand thugs congregate. After several months offriendly encounters between the two, Doctor Binvites him to a top-notch gentleman’s clubcalled Kōshi – a club not mentioned in anyguidebook - which he considers to be a usefulexperience for Shimura’s literary writings. Thetwo go by car to the club and the narrativequickly unfolds a map of their directions toguide the reader through Shanghai followingstreet names. They pass the famous NanjingRoad and the Suzhou River followed by

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Northern Sichuan Road before stopping atLaobazi Road (Old Range Road). The two mustwalk the final part to reach the club.

“We go right. We enter this alley. MisterShimura, don’t get hit by a tram.”

It was more likely that he would be hit by atram with his habit of crossing the road likethat. On the left side of the alley there was anew three-story tenement house together witha barber shop and a candy store making it likea business street. But all houses had theirshutters down and [people] were asleep. Andthose houses with light coming from the secondand third floors were probably absorbed inMahjong.

“It is strange that this place has such shops,right?” said Shimura while looking around. Atthat time, Doctor B turned into an alley next toa large white building looking like a café on theright side in front of the barber.

That alley had a particular Chinesepavement of Ningbo stones and thesurroundings resembling a tunnelhad two or three lamps, which litup like dark strange eyeballscasting a faint light a few inchesaway. The paving stones were asslippery as oil and filled with astinging odor of urine.

When Shimura turned towards arear entrance near the end of abrick wall, he looked up feelingintimidated. The building with astrange overly big head was verydominant like an expressionistlandscape made of strong straightand curved lines sent towards thesky. And the stars shone likeshoulder decorations informing theinfinity of the sky.49

As Shimura leaves the familiar behind andenters the unknown, he describes veryprecisely the directions by telling the readerwhen the two men turn right or left and whatbuildings or markers are present. In this way,the reader can supplement the existing mapfrom the media and guidebooks with theprovided markers connecting the two. Thefrequent use of adjectives such as “strange”and “dark” describing the ambiance increasesthe suspense. The unhygienic and intimidatingsurroundings predict that Shimura is headingtowards a scary and grotesque place.

At first sight, the club Kōshi seems like astandard place to Shimura where richgentlemen enjoy the company of young localand foreign girls. When the night progresses,however, the club gradually unfolds as amysterious and ambiguous place as Shimuraobserves gentlemen occasionally leave thedance room with a girl and come back alone.Watching these gentlemen, Doctor B tellsShimura that “the power of money makespeople evil and crazy.” Soon after, the two seea customer harassing one of the girls andrescue her by calling her over to their table.The Portuguese girl, called Kate, studied musicin France and shares her interest in literatureafter she learns that Shimura is a novelist.Here Itō revises the stereotypical image ofShanghai dancers as objects of lust and desireby depicting Kate instead as an intellectualwith an interest in politics and awareness ofexploitation by the rich. Shimura asks for thewashroom and Kate gives him directions, buthe discovers this is not the way to thewashroom. Shimura uses his agency to leavethe existing grid entering a secret place. As forthe reader as well as Shimura the location thatfollows is not presented on maps in guidebooksnor is it discussed in media continuing thesuspense of the unknown.

As he was told, Shimura walked tothe end of the long and lonely

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hallway toward the mirror wherehe descended the stairs. Hedescended the beautiful stair of thethird and second floor decoratedwith engraved dragons. Then heapproached an awfully dark stonestaircase and realized that it wasstrange that such a fancy buildinghad no washroom on the thirdfloor. Or he thought he might havemade a mistake, but he clearlyremembered that she had orderedhim to go all the way to the right.S o , h e c o n t i n u e d s l o w l ydescending the stone steps, whichgave him the chills. When hethought about it later, he realizedthat the lady had deliberatelyshowed him this place. But still,why did she want to show him sucha secret place? The more hethought about it the more doubtsboiled up. Just a prank out ofcuriosity? Or did it have somedeeper meaning? That was difficultto tell just based on her facialexpressions. But it was clear thatshe had intended to show himsomething. If that’s the case, heunderstood that she wanted toreveal the dark side of their livesby showing this terrifying placeand was asking for help of somekind. That is how he eventuallyunderstood it.

Shimura felt doubt and malaise,but also a strange curiosity. Whenhe descended the grey stairs allthe way to the end, he saw a smallsign saying “basement.” He washesitant for a moment, but then hecontinued into the stained and dimhallway.50

The “detective-like” description slowly reaches

its zenith and reveals the crimes of thegentlemen. Shimura like a detective followinghints discovers (hakken) their secret and findsmany skinny and sickly girls incarcerated inpigsty-like cages. This is where the gentlemencommit their crimes by buying girls as theirtoys and locking them up. A guard noticesShimura and scares him away. Shimura can donothing but report about these crimes in hisstories. The two leave the club late at nightwhile the gentlemen continue to partyproducing a stark contrast with the coolies andrikshaw pullers who have already started towork.

The story ends with Shimura back in Japancorresponding with Doctor B. In one of hisletters, Shimura has asked Doctor B if the clubstill exists. Doctor B replies telling him that dueto the war between the communists andnationalist the club has closed but thesegentlemen will continue to commit crimes aslong as nobody stops them. Itō asks his readersfor sympathy with the girls and to stop theexploitation by the rich. Although an actualdetective is absent in this story, we see how thenarrative acts as a detective revealing thecrimes of the capitalists toward his charactersand readers.

Conclusion

Returning to Itō’s attempt at writing a“detective and proletarian like popular novel”we can see how he managed to developproletarian literature. He weaved elements ofreportage, journalism and detective fictiontogether with a class-based critique ofexploitation resulting in a powerful collection ofstories. By examining Itō’s writings of the late1920s and early ‘30s, it becomes clear that heactively engaged with the contemporarydiscourse on Shanghai to have proletarianliterature intervene in mass culture and media.While Itō’s writings were not free fromreproducing certain market demands such as

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sensational and orientalist depictions, hiscontribution consisted of providing whatbourgeois media and culture left out ofnarratives on Shanghai. Itō’s characters takethe reader from the familiar sites to theunknown by diverting from the common pathsin Shanghai exposing the exploitation hiddenbehind the façade of Shanghai glamour. Bydoing so, Itō skilfully enriched the possibilitiesof proletarian literature showing how formatsconsidered unfit for proletarian critique turnedout to be useful.

Previous studies of Japanese literary andjournalistic writings on Shanghai have oftenignored the contributions of proletarianliterature. However, I think that examining thelarge body of proletarian writings, of which mydiscussion of Itō’s articles and fiction is oneexample, can significantly enrich ourunderstanding of Japanese literature onShanghai and China in particular and Japaneseliterature in general.

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Edwin Michielsen is a PhD Candidate in the Department of East Asian Studies at theUniversity of Toronto. His current research is tentatively called “Envisioning ProletarianSolidarity: Internationalism and Proletarian Culture in East Asia” and deals with articulationsof solidarity and internationalism in proletarian literary and cultural works from East Asiaduring the 1920s and 1930s.

edwin.michielsen@mail.utoronto.ca(https://apjjf.org/mailto:edwin.michielsen@mail.utoronto.ca)

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Notes1 Itō Ken, “Ima made no michi”, in Shinko bungaku zenshu 6, (Tokyo: Heibonsha, 1930),194-195. Translations are mine unless stated otherwise. For a complete biographical overviewof Itō Ken see, Itō Ken kenkyūkai, Itō Ken: Hito to sakuhin (Shizuoka: Itō Ken kenkyūkai,2001) and Ishihara, Masayoshi, "Haishō, Shanghai, feminizumu - Itō Ken", in Kindai Shizuokano senkusha: jidai o hiraki yume ni ikita jukyunin no gunzo (Shizuoka: Shizuoka Shinbunsha,1999), 321-44.2 For studies on detective fiction in Japan see Itō, Hideo, Taishō wo tantei shōsetsu (Tokyo:Sanichi Shobō, 1991); Itō, Hideo, Shōwa no tantei shōsetsu: shōwa gannen--shōwa 20-nen(Tokyo: Sanichi Shobō, 1993); Itō, Hideo. Kindai no tantei shosetsu (Tokyo: Sanichi Shobō,1994); Kawana, Sari, Murder Most Modern: Detective Fiction and Japanese Culture(Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2008); Saito, Satoru. Detective Fiction and theRise of the Japanese Novel, 1880-1930 (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press,2012). Itō Ken was not the only proletarian writer engaging with detective fiction. Otherproletarian writers are Hirabayahi Taiko, Hayama Yoshiki, Hayashi Fusao, MurayamaTomoyoshi, among others. See Nakajima Kawataro, “Nihon tantei shōsetsu-shi nōto 2 –puroretaria bungaku no hitobito,” Gen’eijō: tantei shōsetsu senmonshi 1 (no. 10, 1975):130-136.3 Kono Kensuke finds this combination in many detective works published in prewar Japan.See Kono, Kensuke, Tantei shōsetsu to Nihon kindai (Tokyo: Seikyūsha, 2004), 259.4 Takeuchi, Mizuho, Taishūka wo meguru “Kōtsū”, Itō Ken Shanhai yawa ni okeru puroretariatantei shōsetsu no kokoromi, Nihon bungaku 58, (no. 11, 2009): 53-54. See also chapter 10“Puroretaria bungaku no “rinkai” he: Itō Ken Shanhai yawa ni okeru puroretaria tanteishōsetsu no kokoromi” in her book "Hentai" to iu bunka : kindai Nihon no "chiisana kakumei"(Tokyo: Hitsuji Shobo, 2014).5 Ōmori, Shigeki, “Sasupensu no kōzō to “Kurain no tsubo” “Jenosaido” no hikaku kōsatsu,” inNihon tantei shosetsu o yomu: henko to chohatsu no misuteri-shi, edited by Oshino, Takeshi;Morooka, Takuma, (Sapporo: Hokkaido Daigaku Shuppankai, 2013), 233-234.6 During this time in Weimar Germany Marxists thinkers such as Siegfried Kracauer, WalterBenjamin, and Ernst Bloch shared similar concerns. See for example Siegfried Kracauer, DerDetektiv-Roman – Ein Philosophischer Traktat; Ernst Bloch, “A Philosophical View of theDetective Novel,” and Walter Benjamin, “Kriminalromane, auf Reisen” (Crime Novels, onTravel). Some of these texts were published after the war.7 Hirabayashi, Hatsunosuke, Hirabayashi Hatsunosuke bungei hyōron zenshū vol. 3 (Tokyo:Bunsendō Shoten, 1975), 221.8 Hirabayashi, vol. 3, 402.9 Ibid., vol. 3, 222.10 Itō Ken, “Kagakusha no tachiba kara mita bungei (1), (2), and (3)” Bunshō Kurabu, (Febr.,March and April 1924).11 Hirabayashi, vol. 2, 210.12 Ibid., vol. 3, 401-404. The numbers are from Hirabayashi’s list.13 Itō Ken wrote two books on hentai, Hentai ninjōshi (A History of Abnormal Feelings, 1926)and Hentai sakkashi (A History of Abnormal Writers, 1926). For more on ero-guro-nansensu

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see Silverberg, Miriam, Erotic Grotesque Nonsense: The Mass Culture of Japanese ModernTimes (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2009).14 Reportage literature was a new genre evolving among proletarian literature used to exposethe crimes of capitalism and imperialism. See for example Aono Suekichi’ study Sarariiman nokyōfu jidai (The Panic Era of the Salaryman, 1930) and Siegfried Krakaucer’s Die Angestellten(The Salaried Masses, 1930). For a theoretical essay on reportage literature see “Hōkokubungaku-ron” (Treatise on Reportage Literature, 1930).15 Hirabayashi, vol. 2, 45-46. See also Ikeda, Hiroshi, “Tenkō to tantei shōsetsu: HirabayashiHatsunosuke botsugo gojūnen ni yosete, Shisō (no. 11, 1981): 172-73.16 Itō Ken, “Ima made no michi,” 195.17 See for example, Okabayashi, Takatoshi, Shanhai Koro No Jidai: Taisho Showa Shoki NoNagasaki to Shanhai, (Nagasaki: Nagasaki Bunkensha, 2006), and Fogel, Joshua A, TheLiterature of Travel in the Japanese Rediscovery of China, 1862-1945, (Stanford, CA: StanfordUP, 1996), A. Maiden Voyage: The Senzaimaru and the Creation of Modern Sino-JapaneseRelations, (California: University of California Press), 2014.18 Zhao Mengyun, Shanhai, bungaku zanzō: Nihonjin sakka no hikari to kage, (Tokyo: TabataShoten, 2000), 13.19 Ibid.20 Wada, Hirofumi, (et al.), Gengo toshi Shanhai 1840-1945 (Tokyo: Fujiwara Shoten, 1999),10-11. 21 The Uchiyama bookstore, opened and run by Uchiyama Kanzō (1885-1959), possessed thelargest Japanese book collection in Shanghai. The bookstore was also an important locationfor Sino-Japanese literary contacts including Lu Xun (1881-1936). See Keaveney, ChristopherT., Beyond Brushtalk: Sino-Japanese Literary Exchange in the Interwar Period (Hong Kong:Hong Kong University Press, 2009), 23-44.22 Itō Ken, “Shanhai no hitobito ge,” Yomiuri Shinbun, 1927.11.29, 4. 23 Itō Ken, “Shanhai kikō,” Zuihitsu, (November, 1927): 30. 24 Itō Ken, “Shanhai-teki zakki,” Wakakusa, (December, 1927): 54. 25 Itō Ken, “Shanhai kikō,” 32. 26 Itō Ken, “Shanhai-teki zakki,” 54-55. 27 Itō Ken, “Shinatsū dangi ge,” Yomiuri Shinbun, 1932.2.11, 4.28 Hailufeng was the first Soviet in China established in 1927.29 Itō Ken, “Shinatsū dangi ge,” Yomiuri Shinbun, 1932.2.11, 4.30 Itō Ken, “Shinatsū dangi jō,” Yomiuri Shinbun, 1932.2.9, 4.31 Ibid.32 Itō mentions prominent journals such as Dongfang zazhi (The Eastern Miscellany) andWenhua pipan (Cultural Criticism) as well as books by proletarian writers such as Guo Moruo(1892-1978), Jiang Guangci (1901-1931) and Chen Duxiu (1879-1942). See Itō Ken, “Saikin noChūka Shuppankai,” Shomotsu tenbō 1, (no. 5, 1931), 16-19.33 I take the idea of referentiality from Alexander Des Forges who writes: “This city[Shanghai] space is not a haphazard or formless jumble, but a system of relations betweenrecognizable names that direct the reader to other types of presentation: photographs,lithographic, illustrations, maps, guidebooks, lists of city streets and establishments, andnewspaper articles, among others. In addition, this attention to the structure of urban space

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is paired with the frequent mention of markers of time – hours of the day, days of the week,and days of the month – to form a grid of reference that is central not only to each of thenovels individually, but also to the development of the genre as a whole, foregroundingreferentiality as a key question.” Des Forges, Alexander, Mediasphere Shanghai: theaesthetics of cultural production (Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 2007), 57.34 Itō, Ken, “Kokusai toshi Shanhai no satsujin jiken,” Fujin Kōron, (no. 10, 1933), 223.35 Itō, Ken, “Mato no himitsu chizu: Hannin no machi (Shanhai), burai no machi (Nankyō),supai no machi (Harubin), Bungaku jidai 2 (no. 6, 1930), 104-108.36 Fujita, Tomohiro, Gaichi tantei shōsetsuhū Shanhai-hen (Tokyo: Serabi Shobō, 2006), 287.37 Takeuchi, 45 and footnote 2, 56.38 Itō Ken, “Tantei shōsetsu no shinhōkō – puro tantei shōsetsu shutsugen no kiun –” Shin-Aichi, 1931.2.2, 3.39 Ibid.40 Ibid. In addition, proletarian writer Maedakō Hiroichirō offers a similar perspective on hisstory “Rōdōsha Jō O Burain no shi” (The Death of Worker John O’Brian), “Detective fictiondoes not necessarily show the criminal. Sometimes it shows only the crime.” Quoted inNakajima Kawataro, “Nihon tantei shōsetsu-shi nōto 2 – puroretaria bungaku no hitobito,” inGen’eijō: tantei shōsetsu senmonshi 1 (no. 10, 1975): 136.41 Itō Ken, “Kokusai shōsetsu ide yo,” Sōsaku gekkan, (no. 11, 1928),73-74.42 “Shuka” Henshūbu, “‘Shinseinen’ no kokusaisei to Ajia: imin, shokuminchi, chōyō sakka,”Shuka, (no. 13, 1999): 8.　This has been examined by scholars such as Faye Kleeman, whowrites about Japanese crime fiction in Taiwan, and Yu Jaejin who analyses detective stories byKorean and Japanese writers in colonial Korea. See Faye Yuan Kleeman, “Body, Identiy, andSocial Order: Japanese Crime Fiction in Colonial Taiwan,” Oriental Archive 81, (no. 3, 2013);Yu, Jaejin, “Shokuminchi Chōsen ni okeru zaichō Nihonjin no tantei shōsetsu 1: tantei no tōjōtantei shōsetsu,” Nihon gakuhō 104, (no.8, 2015); and the two other volumes edited by FujitaTomohiro dealing with Manchuria and Nanyō detective fiction.43 Besides the thirteen stories, four stories on Harbin and Nanjing are also included. 44 Itō continued to write about Shanghai and published a sequence of Shanghai Night Storiestitled Shin Shanghai yawa (New Shanghai Night Stories, 1932).45 Takeuchi, 54. Moroka Takuma, for example, mentions that in so-called postwar “fabricateddetective” (kyokō suiri) stories the absence of any riddle (nazo) was its main characteristic.This resembles the absence of tricks in Itō Shanghai Night Stories. Moroka, Takuma, “Sōzōsuru suiri,” in Nihon tantei shosetsu o yomu : henko to chohatsu no misuteri-shi, Oshino,Takeshi; Morooka, Takuma (ed.), (Sapporo: Hokkaido Daigaku Shuppankai, 2013), 263.46 Hirabayashi writes that Japanese are too bureaucratic to have private detectives.Hirabayashi, vol. 3, 222.47 Takeuchi, 53.48 Maeda Ai writes about a similar type of referentiality in his reading of Yokomitsu Riichi’sShanghai. Maeda, Ai, “Shanghai 1925: Toshi shōsetsu to shite no Shanhai,” Bungaku 49,(no.8, 1981), 1-23.49 Itō, Ken, Shanhai yawa (Tokyo: Heibonsha, 1929), 131-132.50 Ibid., 141-142.