The Inugami Clan by Seishi Yokomizo, translated by Yumiko Yamazaki (ICG Muse)

Seishi Yokomizo is a Japanese mystery writer. He is the creator of the popular detective series Kindaichi. Kosuke Kindaichi is an unorthodox and unkempt man who is in his mid-thirties. He is “slightly built, with an unruly mop of hair” and wears “an unfashionable serge kimono and wide-legged pleated hakama trousers, both very wrinkled and worn - and he had a slight tendency to stutter”. 

He was the main character who solved the cases of “The Honjin Murders”, “Gokumon Island”, and “Yatsuhaka Village”, all previously published titles in Japanese with the titles of Honjin Satsujin Jiken, Gokumonto, Yatsuhakamura.

The Inugami Clan is his most popular and well-known novel once again featuring Kosuke Kindaichi. It was translated into English by Yumiko Yamazaki. The book has been adapted into a movie twice by the same director, Kon Ichikawa. The first adaptation was in 1976 which had the international English title of The Inugami Family and again in 2006 with the title The Inugamis.

Sahei Inugami is one of the leading businessmen in an area north of Tokyo. He is the founder of the Inugami Group and is also called the Silk King. His story is the epitome of the rags to riches as he was an orphan as I child, a drifter as a young adult, he is not even sure if his surname is really his own. He was taken in by a kind-hearted priest who nursed him back to health and treated him like his own son. 

Thanks to Daini Nonomiya, the priest of Nasu Temple, not only did Sahei recover. Under Nonomiya’s sponsorship and tutelage, he was educated and became the success that he is today. He never married but has three daughters who were all born of different mothers. He also adopted Tamayo, the granddaughter of his savior and mentor Nonomiya. 

Sahei Inugami is now on his deathbed and his children have gathered at the family home in Nasu. His eldest daughter Matsuko and her son Kiyo. Her husband died during the war. The second daughter Takeko and her husband Toranosuke, along with their son and daughter, Take and Sayoko. The third daughter, Umeko, has come with her husband Kokichi and her son Tomio. 

Sahei Inugami has never trusted the husbands of any one of his daughters and he had no love for them as well. None of the family voiced their true concerns - who would inherit the Inugami fortune, but before Sahei Inugami could make his last wish known, he died. However, he left his last will and testament which was to be read on the first anniversary of his death. 

Kindaichi has come to the Nasu region almost a year after Sahei Inugami’s passing. He received a strange letter from a man named Toyoichiro Wakabayasi from the Furdate Law Office in Nasu. The law office handles all legal documents associated with the Inugami Group. He has expressed to Kindaichi his fears that members of the Inugami family will be killed and would he come to Nasu to investigate the matter.

The day Kindaichi was to speak to Wakabayashi in person, he was found dead at the inn where Kindaichi was staying. Kindaichi had thought the letter might have been a prank but decided to come to Nasa to speak with Wakabayashi in person. Now he is dead and Kindaichi unwittingly finds himself investigating a new case concerning the Inugami family. 

Yokomizo creates a mystery involving all members of the clan that without a family tree may confuse the reader. Its main plot involves an inheritance dispute. Wakabayashi knew it would bring out the worst in all the family members After his death, a series of other murders will occur. Can Kindaichi solve yet another crime that he was only peripherally involved in?. Why did Sahei Inugami write such a convoluted will that left his entire fortune to Tamayo who isn’t even a blood relative? The secrets of the family may surprise you! ~Ernie Hoyt