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Imanishi sees Akechi soon after and having learned what happened from Kobayashi, confronts Akechi about letting the thief go. We don’t learn Akechi’s reasons since he wasn’t asked, and in the end Akechi tells him the number plate of the car the thief left in. The detective calls it in and soon after a policeman sees the car and there’s a car chase that ends with the thief’s car tire blowing out and getting arrested. Everyone celebrates big time. In Akechi’s absence (he wanted to go to the ministry of foreign affairs) Kobayashi identifies the fake Tujino as the thief.
thoughts
So it’s not just us puzzling over Akechi’s plan. But here there are several places the thief could have swapped disguises, ie, with the driver? Perhaps earlier he sent someone else out of the hotel as the fake Tujino, that’s another possibility. Or it really is the thief and we find it why Akechi didn’t want to arrest him. After all, there’s no proof! The most he can get charged for is impersonating Tujino.
Expression
一刻を争う to race against time
23 わしがほんものじゃ
Summary
Chief investigator Nakamura triumphantly settles in to interview the thief. But fake Tujino turns out to be the fake thief! But he insists he’s the real deal 松下庄兵衛 - it was the thief who disguised himself as him (Matushita). He tells his story of making a business mistake and becoming jobless. One day he met a man at a park who told him he could make money riding around in a car all day. Sure! On the day he rides around the car. They stop in front of the railway hotel where he gets lunch. Then they wait outside the station for a while when much to his surprise someone gets in the car who looks exactly like him. He comes in the car and says to depart, drive anywhere, and go full speed. Then he gets out the other side of the car.
thoughts
This is a quirky and a nice surprise. Instead of sending out a different Tujino or swapping disguises with the driver, I love the abundant caution of having this whole doppelganger ruse already in place (although very convoluted as someone mentioned last week). I’m guessing then he must have counted on Akechi not yet having met Tujino because it doesn’t seem like he made Matushita disguise himself as anyone else. Perhaps this made it easier for Akechi to catch on at the platform if he had at least seen, if not met, Tujino.
Expression
手に乗る, 手にのる to fall for a trick, to be taken in, to play into the hands (of)
24 二十面相の新弟子
Summary
Kobayashi asks Akechi why he didn’t capture or follow the thief and Akechi says due to humiliating the thief in this way, the thief will lose his cool and try to take Akechi out. That obsession and distraction seems to be what Akechi thinks he can use to use to his advantage. He tells Kobayashi that the next day something dangerous will happen but not to worry, it’s all part of the plan. He points out a storyteller who can be seen from the window who must be the thief’s henchman.
The next day a disguised beggar is staking out Akechi’s place. Then outside Akechi’s place a different person, a vagrant, causes a big ruckus and tries to pick a fight with Akechi, who comes out and neutralises him and disappears. After the vagrant leaves, the beggar follows him to figure out what he has against Akechi. The vagrant said Akechi is the one who got him in jail. In the end the vagrant 赤井寅三 (Akai Torazou) is convinced to join as a pupil of the thief.
thoughts
Is the vagrant disguised and part of Akechi’s plan or really a coincidence? I’m not sure about Akechi’s analysis / plan, it’s pretty convoluted, and also quite self centred and ego driven, not to mention high risk if the thief would really just want him dead. But perhaps for the purposes of story telling, I suppose it would be interesting for the thief’s ego to be used against him, rather than a ‘this other clever guy arrested him’ ending.
But sometimes adults do Irrational things in children’s books. At least in Ch 22 another adult chewed him out. I had been hoping Akechi had a great plan up his sleeve rather than just placing such a big bet on the thief’s psychology
This week felt a little longer again. Probably is a little longer since it combines 3 chapters.
I liked the third chapter the most. Big setup for what is to come.
I’m kinda shocked we are already (more than) 3/4 through the book. But I can kinda see how it is gearing up for a grand finale
It was really obvious that the driver won’t be the real 二十面相. I mean the book even says the chase happens 20 mins after the hotel incident. Who would have thought that the thief does not drive 20 mins in the same car to escape ^^. In this book, the good guys also seem pretty slow on the uptake sometimes.
I have to agree that the thief is pretty hardcore about covering his tracks with multiple layers of backup in place.
I’ll be honest when I first read your あらすじ I felt totally lost by your sentences. Now, after reading, they actually make sense.
Yeah, the ルンペン (what a fun word as a German XD) is for sure arranged by 明智. He went out in the morning, I’m pretty sure he arranged it then. 明智 wants to plant a guy in 二十面相s ranks to get to know where the hideout is and maybe learn more about his plans. He thinks that’s the better way instead of having 小林少年 follow the 乞食 that stakes out his place. I honestly expect the ルンペン to probably be a 刑事 in disguise?
Since the 乞食 isn’t totally stupid though, it seems he wants him to kidnap 明智 before granting a meeting with 二十面相親分.
If I read the next chapter title I expect 明智 actually going along with that and being kidnapped. I’m not sure if that will be a great idea. But it would fit with what he told 小林 to not freak out if something happens to him.
reading it again I can understand why. I hadn’t really thought about it but I guess these are mostly written when I’m in a ‘I just need to note down some key points to remember what happened’ mode and it seems I’m not really in a story telling mode or even in a ‘using English fluently’ mode
oh I missed that connection, and had to look it up, nice one
oooh, that makes sense, I was considering that advice to 小林 just in terms of the altercation outside his house, not something potentially bigger I think you’re right
This came up in Ch 24 and then today I coincidentally came across it again:
紙芝居, “paper theatre”) is an older form of storytelling, here is an extract from the wiki:
Kamishibai (紙芝居, “paper play”) is a form of Japanese street theater and storytelling that was popular during the Great Depression of the 1930s and the postwar period in Japan until the advent of television during the mid-20th century. Kamishibai were performed by a kamishibaiya (“kamishibai narrator”) who travelled to street corners with sets of illustrated boards that they placed in a miniature stage-like device and narrated the story by changing each image
here’s a documentary I found and the opening scene shows how it starts and is presented
oh, I like this expression! I see that 一刻・いっこく means a “moment,” so it seems similar to the saying “without a moment to lose”…oh but I could be wrong…
There were a number of words used in this chapter I enjoyed learning especially in the lengthy description of the car chase around the city
武者震い (むしゃぶるい) - which is “trembling with excitement” It was used to describe the solitary policeman in Totsuka, Shinjuku who catches sight of the car with the licence plate 13887 and is about to try and stop it. The kanji is a warrior (武者) trembling (震い) which I can easily imagine as someone about to enter a boxing ring or about to go into battle.
野次馬 (やじうま）- curious onlooker or rubbernecker. This was used to describe the people the cars raced through the streets past. According to one theory on the wiki page, it possibly came from Oyaji uma (old horse), which are useless for work, but will stroll over to see what you are doing out of curiosity
黒山の人集り(くろやまのひと集まり）- a massive crowd of people - When the cars finally stopped, everyone crowded around to see the thief. apparently the “black mountain” reference comes from everyone having black hair, so as they crowd around, making it look like a black mountain
Ch. 23
In this chapter it really highlighted the degree of convoluted planning the thief undertakes. Although he didn’t manage to kidnap Detective Akechi at the hotel, the fact that he hunted around looking for an unemployed man (Matsushita) he could perfectly impersonate, then had the car park right in front of the hotel, right across from the basement entrance to the a barbershop so the thief could enter the car on one side and exit out the other as an escape route. Well, this sounds more like performance art than crime!
Ch. 24
The whole time I was reading this chapter I was trying to figure out who the “vagrant” yelling at “Akechi” was. I felt like Akechi in this chapter appears in the window a lot, and on the porch too, but there seemed to be an emphasis on the fact that he didn’t say much if anything, which made me think the vagrant was Akechi…BUT after reading the comments here, maybe not…also from reading the comments, Kobayashi can’t be either of the two, because he was warned beforehand to not be alarmed. So it makes sense that one of the impersonators is a policeman…
So interesting! Until I read your comment, I thought this was some kind of paper supply store.
Other phrase I liked from this chapter were:
口車に載る(くちぐるまにのる）- to fall for someone’s smooth talking. This was used on page 134 to describe Matsushita the unemployed man and how the thief smooth-talked him into being a decoy. Ha! I think this is literally taking a ride in the mouth car (and being carried away…) Don’t accept rides from mouth cars!
Love your notes! Even better that it’s after the club has read this part, cause I had already forgotten more than half of it so now it feels like brand new words I’ve never seen before for most of them
Glad you’re still on it!
These notes are amazing, really enjoyed all the extra detail for each phase, diving down into the why behind it. The horse one is probably my favourite
reading it again I can understand why. I hadn’t really thought about it but I guess these are mostly written when I’m in a ‘I just need to note down some key points to remember what happened’ mode and it seems I’m not really in a story telling mode or even in a ‘using English fluently’ mode 
I think you’re right
