Devils In Daylight by Junichiro Tanizaki

Junichiro Tanizaki was an innovator of modern Japanese literature, and this twisted mystery, with influences of Edgar Allan Poe, will dispel any misconception that a story written in 1918 cannot read as fresh as a current thriller.

Wealthy dandy Sonomura makes no secret of his eccentricity, and his good friend Takahashi feels an obligation to watch over his whims. Sonomura shares his excitement at discovering a secret: that very night, somewhere in Tokyo, a homicide will be performed, and he wants to watch it. If Takahashi won't go with him, he would have to experience it alone.

Days before, Sonomura watched a man and a woman covertly share a cryptic note, which Sonomura later obtained. Written in the same code Poe used in his novel The Gold Bug, the couple must have been educated. Sonomura deciphers it to reveal the murder location, time, and weapon. It seems Sonomura has grown weary of normal pleasures and become obsessed with crime.

Takahashi does not have that curiosity, but they track down an abandoned house to witness what looks like a pornography shoot: a man with a camera, a bathtub, and an elegant geisha theatrically moving on a tatami, cradling the head of a corpse. Both men are filled with strange ecstasy at the convergence of beauty and death, realizing the couple have killed before when they see how ingeniously the body is disposed of.

"Frightening things are always beautiful. Demons are as beautiful as the Gods."

Sonomura finds the woman's wickedness eclipsed by her beauty and he is compelled to meet her. To the horror of Takahashi, Sonomura and Eiko begin an affair, and Sonomura confesses his perverse desire to not refuse her anything, even his life.

Edgar Allan Poe was one of the first authors translated into Japanese, as early as 1888. As Tanizaki wove themes of Poe into Devils In Daylight, the English translation by J. Keith Vincent borrows language from Poe's writing. This is not the first Japanese novel I have read that features the fetishistic thrill of being killed in a ritual of love (exciting or repelling, according to your taste) but I am surprised to see it go back as far as 1918.

Strange and engrossing, this is easily read in one sitting yet remains memorable - a sign of a timeless masterwork.

1918 / Hardcover / 96 pages