The Case of the Sharaku Murders by Katsuhiko Takahashi

Author:Katsuhiko Takahashi
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-85728-129-6
Publisher: Anthem Press

6

Farewell

November 4

AS THEIR RESEARCH was at an end, Saeko headed back to Sendai.

Ryohei remained behind in Morioka after seeing her off at the train station. Now he made his way to Kato’s antique shop near Iwate Park. He had already made up his mind about Sharaku’s true identity, but he had promised to call on the art dealer before returning to Tokyo and he did not want to go back on his word. As he sauntered through the streets, Ryohei’s mind was already back in Tokyo.

“Ah, I wasn’t expecting you so early.”

Kato looked up with a smile as Ryohei entered the shop. Though it was almost noon, it seemed Kato had just opened up for the day and he still looked sleepy.

“Had a bit too much to drink last night,” he explained, filling a teapot with hot water. “It was already late when I returned to Morioka and then I had to go straight out, so by the time I got back here to the shop it was three in the morning… Before I forget, I’ve got something to show you.” Placing a steaming cup of tea in front of Ryohei, Kato disappeared into a room at the back of the shop.

It was a relatively large shop—a good 350 square feet. In the middle was a row of five neatly aligned display cases stuffed with all manner of old pots and swords. The surrounding walls were hung with many scrolls and ukiyo-e prints, so there was hardly space in between.

“I found a lot of Western-style paintings in Akita,” said Kato, returning with a thick stack of photocopies and taking a seat across from Ryohei. “Most of these are from a dealer in Yokote.”

Flipping through the pages Kato handed him, Ryohei was astonished. Each sheet had five or six paintings on it, all were part of some sort of album, over thirty pages in all. Ryohei recognized a number of the paintings by Naotake from various books he had seen.

“All of these paintings passed through the dealer’s hands?” he asked.

“So it seems,” replied Kato. “He said this is everything he’s sold from before the war right up to the present, he deals a lot with museums.”

“I’m surprised he was willing to show you all this.”

“Well, he’s a good friend of mine,” Kato said. “Of course, I didn’t actually make the copies myself. A girl in the shop did it for me. You’ll notice the prices and such have been removed.”

Beneath many of the pictures were thick black lines made by a magic marker. Presumably that was what Kato was referring to.

“I’m afraid I’ve put you to a lot of trouble,” Ryohei said apologetically.

“Don’t mention it. The owner loves me—when I told him I was interested in learning something about the Akita School, he was very eager to help,” Kato replied nonchalantly.

“Ah-ha!” exclaimed Ryohei, his eyes growing wide.

“What is it? Did you find something?”

“Yes. There are two paintings on this page right next to each other that look a lot like Shoei’s work.

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