The 1st Selected Works
TITLE
Dogra Magra
(Dogura magura)
(Dogura magura)
AUTHOR
Translator
FRENCH / Patrick Honnoré 
Originally Published by:
Shohakukan (1935)
KEY POINTS
- A controversial book with such fantastically eccentric content that it has spurred equal doses of praise and criticism since its initial publication in 1935
- A historically outstanding and unusual work described as "Japan's top horror fantasy detective novel"
SYNOPSIS
The culprit is "the dream of a fetus"!? A full-fledged detective novel set in abnormal circumstances
Waking up to the sound of growling bees, I cannot remember who or where I am. Kyotaro Wakabayashi, a professor in some forensic medicine faculty, appears and explains that this is the psychiatric ward of a university hospital, where the mental illness treatment methods developed by Prof. Keishi Masaki are employed therapeutically. He tells me that Prof. Masaki created and proved the validity of a revolutionary new theory based on pure science, and that he died a month ago. He says I am here as a guinea pig for experimental tests related to the new treatment, which Prof. Masaki called "madman liberation therapy." Prof. Wakabayashi also tells me that I was involved in a crime of a kind never seen before and begins to explain it to me.
Ichiro Kure, youthful member of a wealthy local family, had strangled his female cousin, who was also his fiancée, to death while sleepwalking. There was also a previous incident where Ichiro Kure had been present when his mother was strangled to death, but testified that he did not remember anything about the event.
Based on his theory that human cells accumulate the psychological effects inherited from generations of ancestors and that the brain is no more than the consciousness of roughly 30 trillion cells, Prof. Masaki concluded that Ichiro Kure's case arose because of the effect of a psychological inheritance from his ancestors buried deep in his psyche in a latent state. The Kure family's lineage is traced back to China and certain facts come to light, such as a painter ancestor, Go Seishu, who had killed his wife, and some mysterious illustrated scrolls.
What kind of life had Ichiro Kure's mother led after running away from the Kure family? Who was the father of Ichiro Kure, who had been raised as an illegitimate child? What was the relationship between Prof. Wakabayashi and Prof. Masaki? Was the "I" with amnesia Ichiro Kure? Finally, the real nature of the experiments starts to become clear.
Genre: Mystery
