"Ooka the Wise": some background information
leno...@yahoo.com
controversial issues mentioned there that have nothing to do with Ooka.
One thing I've found is that if you search on "ooka" and "edmonds"
you'll get more good results than if you include I.G. Edmonds' first
initials, since some people mistakenly spell it J.C. Edmonds!
For the record, Edmonds is not Japanese - in the introduction to "Ooka
the Wise," when he refers to "Ojiisan" (Grandfather) he's only
referring to his storyteller host, being a guest at the house in Japan.
Edmonds reportedly lives in Texas these days.
Lenona.
Judge Ooka: A Real Meitantei
Judge Ooka (Ooka Echizen), like the Chinese Judge Dee, was a real
person. Ooka Echizen no Kami Tadasuke was born in Mikawa, lived from
1677-1751, was magistrate of Yamada, and ended his career as magistrate
of Edo (Tokyo). In fact, he started the famous Edo fire brigade. But he
is best known in story (the Ooka Seidan) for innovative ways of finding
the truth of a case, fairness to the poor, and bizarre ways of making
the punishment fit the crime. And his cherry blossom tattoo. Yes,
during his misspent youth among lowlifes, Ooka went and got a tattoo
(which no high class person would do). In later life, this helped his
disguises. On his TV show, whenever anyone protested that they were
innocent because they thought there were no witnesses, he'd bare his
tattoo again and the criminals would confess abjectly.
The major source in English for Judge Ooka stories are J.C. Edmonds'
collections: Solomon in Kimono, Ooka: More Tales of Solomon in Kimono,
the children's book Ooka the Wise aka The Case of the Marble Monster,
and Tricksters' Tales, which includes at least one Ooka story. There's
also a collection of Japanese folktales about Ooka from a lady named
Hrdlickova, but it's well out of print, too.
There are some webbed handouts which include Ooka stories, although
you'll have to scroll on down a bit. The Concept of Wa I includes the
story of the tatami-maker vs. the cabinetmaker; The Concept of Wa II
includes the story of Hanshichi the Carpenter.
Dorothy and Thomas Hoobler currently have a series of young adult
mysteries starring Judge Ooka: The Ghost in the Tokaido Inn, The Demon
in the Teahouse, and In Darkness, Death. Dutch author Bertus Aafjes
wrote a series of Ooka mystery stories
(http://home.hccnet.nl/jw.koning/aafjes/ba-detectives-chron.htm ),
based both on Edmonds and on original translations made by a friend.
There's also a German collection which is noted in this bibliography (
http://www.ude.de/gulik/stories.html ).
Kabuki and movies (from the silents on) have both celebrated Judge
Ooka. There was also a long-running (1970-1998) TV series, Ooka Echizen
based on his character. Here are some short non-Japanese plays about
the judge. ( Includes a short bio -
http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cache:apMx4dTdbfwJ:www.folktales.net/pdf/webooka.PDF+%22Judge+Ooka%22+Pickpockets&hl=en
). Oh, and manga too. Here's Judge Ooka as drawn by "the god of manga",
Tezuka Osamu.
Finally, there's even an Ooka Echizen Festival in late April, in
Chigasaki city, Kanagawa prefecture. He is also remembered in
Katsushika-ku, the site of the story of the bound Jizo (see here -
almost halfway down).
http://www.tourism.metro.tokyo.jp/english/webmaga/2004spring/spot/
(and here's another website):
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/print/features/books2004/fb20041121a2.htm