The other day, I visited the Japan Camera Museum in Hanzomon.
The Ichibancho Building of JCII (Japan Camera Industry Institute), where the museum is located, is home to Takarajima Inc, generally known for “Amazing Mystery of the year” award. Before the company changed its name to the current one in 1993, it was called JICC Publishing Bureau, but I think it is probably a coincidence that the name is confusingly similar to JCII, which means “landlord.
As an eternal beginner photographer, I am ashamed to say that this was the first time I found and visited the camera museum. I also learned with the museum’s exhibits that Takarajima Inc. in the above floor had published this mystery novel.
Sanaka Hiiragi, author of “Mystery Days at Retro Camera Store in Yanaka” published by Takarajima Inc. “Amazing Mystery” series, 2015.
I used to be quite a mystery reader, so I used to pay quite a bit of attention to “Amazing Mistery” every year, and I should have noticed it in bookstores and the like if it were a paperback series bearing that name. However, I have been away from the hobby of reading novels in recent years, so I honestly did not pay attention to it at all.
I read it right away.
This is a heartwarming series of short mysteries set in a photo store specializing in used film cameras in Yanaka, Tokyo, and as far as I know, the setting and the taste of the work remind me of a famous precedent Noboru Mikami’s “Case file of an antiquarian bookstore Biblia”.
I will not go into too much more about the content of the work so as not to discourage those who have not read it, but I think it is an excellent work that I recommend those who love photography and cameras to read. Including this one, three books have been published and completed, and I read them all at once.
The Japan Camera Museum, which is co-located with Takarajima Inc, is said to be an important source of information for the author regarding the many historical camera masterpieces that appear in the novel as key items in solving the mystery. The museum is also said to be the source of information on the author’s work.
Professing love cameras, photography, and the town of Yanaka, how did I miss this, I wonder?
