鉄鼠の檻 [Tesso no ori]

百鬼夜行 #4

by Natsuhiko Kyogoku

The Iron rat in Japanese In Japanese folklore, if you make a promise you had better keep it—even if you are the Emperor of Japan. Otherwise, the person you betrayed might hold it against you and transform into a giant rat with iron claws and teeth and kill your first-born son. That is the story of the Emperor Shirakawa, his son Prince Taruhito, and the Abbot of Miidera temple Raigo—better known as Tesso, the Iron Rat; or more simply as Raigo the Rat. Iron written in Japanese.

Genres: Horror, Mystery

826 pages, 新書

First published January 1, 1996

About the author

Natsuhiko Kyogoku ( 京極 夏彦, also Natuhiko Kyougoku or Kyōgoku Natsuhiko, born March 26, 1963) is a Japanese mystery writer, who is a member of Ōsawa Office. He is a member of the Mystery Writers of Japan and the Honkaku Mystery Writers Club of Japan.

Three of his novels have been turned into feature films; Mōryō no Hako, which won the 1996 Mystery Writers of Japan Award, was also made into an anime TV series, as was Kosetsu Hyaku Monogatari, and his book Loups=Garous was adapted into an anime feature film. Vertical have published his debut novel as The Summer of the Ubume.

(from Wikipedia)

Reviews

[richa ⋆.˚★]

[ongoing]
Tesso no Ori illustration by Aki Shimizu, Volume 1: Read. 4/5
Deep in the snow clad mountains our protagonist investigates peculiar case of a levitating monk, young girl with jet black hair and strange cases of rat invasions.

[Mizuki · Rating 5 out of 5]

Why am I recommending this book? Not only because it's an outstanding, interesting murder mystery, and it's also more or less the Japanese folklore+Buddhism version of The Name Of the Rose, by Mr. Eco.

However, I can totally see why The Cage of the Iron Mouse is not quite up there with The Name Of the Rose, because the author, Mr. Koygoku, did not manage to give his works as much insight and depth as Mr. Eco had done with his works of classic.

[Vel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very loaded, very dense, very odd. I will need time to process this book, but I think it's my least favorite 百鬼夜行 title so far, which I attribute to a huge degree to the way it intentionally distinguishes itself from the rest of the series' vibe. That was a lot, regardless.

[Sato · Rating 4 out of 5]

Liked it except that it had too much similarity with Eco's The Name of The Rose. Very exciting, but falling far short of Eco (of course).

[CJ Tillman · Rating 4 out of 5]

After two essentially perfect novels this one feels less powerful. This book is MASSIVE, 1400 pages which for a murder mystery is practically unheard of. But for all that length the conclusion comes really abruptly and the aftermath feels a little lacking. The discussions about Buddhism and Zen and how they impact the murder and suspects are so unbelievably fascinating that I wish the aftermath included more of those. Also Imakawa is an interesting character, but his questions on art vs. craft is kinda forgotten as the novel goes on, so I hope he shows up in later novels.

[Life · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Zen version of The Name of the Rose.

[F Gato · Rating 4 out of 5]

美僧💦💦💦

[至芳 岡村 · Rating 4 out of 5]

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