Seicho Matsumoto (1909–1992) was one of Japan’s most celebrated mystery novelists. He worked as a waiter and a printer before getting a job designing layouts for the Asahi Shinbun newspaper. When he was 41 his short story Saigo’s Currency was nominated for the Naoki Prize, and in 1953 The Legend of the Kokura Diary won the Akutagawa Prize. His Points and Lines (1958) is now considered a pioneer of the mystery novel genre in Japan and enjoys undiminished popularity today, six decades after it was first published. During his life he wrote over 700 works.
