Jinka Katsuo

Entry updated 12 September 2022. Tagged: Author.

Pseudonym of Kanji Ōtsuka (1936-2017), author, translator and anthologist who is best known in his native Japan as the country's foremost authority on Jack the Ripper. His translations have included works by Robert Bloch, Ray Bradbury, Philip K Dick, Richard Matheson and C L Moore.

In the 1980s, Jinka flirted briefly with Space Opera in the form of the Space Ranger trilogy, which retold Japanese myth in a Far Future setting. However, this met with remarkably short shrift, even from usually forgiving Japanese sf reviewers, who criticized its small sense of scale and oddly gullible protagonists. His subsequent work has largely revolved around anthologies of Sherlock Holmes and similar "famous detectives", or mysteries written in a liminal space between nonfiction and docudrama, typified by Jigoku no Hono'o Satsujin Jiken ["The Hellfire Club Murder Case"] (1995) (see Horror in SF; Crime and Punishment). [JonC]

Kanji Ōtsuka

born Yokohama, Japan: 23 December 1936

died 22 December 2017

works as by Katsuo Jinka

series

Space Ranger series

Shiroi Megami no Fukushū ["Revenge of the White Goddess"] (Tokyo: Asahi Sonorama, 1980) [Space Ranger: pb/Sadao Miyamoto]
Koku no Sankakujo ["Castle of the Black Triangle"] (Tokyo: Asahi Sonorama, 1981) [Space Ranger: pb/Sadao Miyamoto]
Akai Hono'o no Ansatsusha ["Assassin of the Red Flames"] (Tokyo: Asahi Sonorama, 1983) [Space Ranger: pb/Sadao Miyamoto]

works as author/editor

Sekai Shi no Nazo ["Mysteries of World History"] (Tokyo: Tairiku Shobō, 1971) [binding unknown/]
Meitantei Sanjūnin no Chōsen: Sense o Migaku Suiri Puzzle ["Contest of 30 Famous Detectives: Deductive Puzzles to Hone the Senses"] (Tokyo: Nagaoka Shoten, 1984) [coll: binding unknown/]
London Kyōfu: Kirizaki Jack to Sono Jidai ["The Fear of London: Jack the Ripper and his Times"] (Tokyo: Hayakawa Shobō, 1985) [pb/]
Kaigai Mystery Zen Catalogue ["A Catalogue of Foreign Mystery Stories"] (Tokyo: Nippon Television, 1996) [binding unknown/nonpictorial]
Shin London Kyōfu: Kirizaki Jack no Hankō to Shinjijitsu ["The New Fear of London: Jack the Ripper's Crimes and New Discoveries"] (Tokyo: Hara Shobō, 1997) [nonfiction: pb/]
Kaigai Mystery Tantei Best 100 ["Foreign Detectives: Best 100"] (Tokyo: Shakai Omoisha, 1994) [coll: pb/]
Tokusho Annai Ketteihan Kaigai Mystery Seminar ["Seminars in Key Foreign Mysteries: An Introductory Reader"] (Tokyo: Asahi Sonorama, 1994) [coll: pb/]
Dracula Tanjō ["The Birth of Dracula"] (Tokyo: Kōdansha, 1995) [binding unknown/]
Jigoku no Hono'o Satsujin Jiken ["The Hellfire Club Murder Case"] (Tokyo: Kōdansha, 1995) [binding unknown/]
Dracula no Satsujin Jiken ["The Dracula Murder Case"] (Tokyo: Kōdansha, 1997) [binding unknown/]
Kyūketsuki Densetsu: Dracula no Batsueitachi ["Great Vampire Stories: The Descendants of Dracula"] (Tokyo: Hara Shobō, 1997) [anth: binding unknown/]
Kirizaki Jack: Yami ni Kieta Satsujinki Jijitsu ["Jack the Ripper: New Facts about the Killer Who Disappeared into the Darkness"] (Tokyo: Kawade Shobō, 2001) [nonfiction: pb/]
Lizzie Borden Jiken no Shinsō ["The Truth About the Lizzie Borden Case"] (Tokyo: Kawade Shobō Shinsha, 1997) [binding unknown/]
London no Kaiki Densetsu ["Mystery Tales of London"] (Tokyo: Media Factor Da Vinci, 2002) [binding unknown/]
Gensō to Kaiki: Uchū Kaijū Arawaru ["Fantasy and Mystery: Advent of the Alien Monsters"] (Tokyo: Hayakawa Shobō, 2005) [anth: binding unknown/]
Gensō to Kaiki: Ore no Yume no Onna ["Fantasy and Mystery: Woman of My Dreams"] (Tokyo: Hayakawa Shobō, 2005) [anth: binding unknown/]

links

previous versions of this entry

Internet Archive