Books
Matsumoto Seichō: Points and Lines and Castle of Sand
Points and Lines is set between Tokyo Station and the beach at Kashii in Fukuoka, while Castle of Sand follows a detective from the Kamata rail yard in Tokyo to Akita and Shimane. Seichō Matsumoto's two best-known crime novels turn Japan's railways into the clues.
This route follows both stories: the four-minute gap on Tokyo Station's platforms, the Kashii shore, and the stations named Kameda that lead the detective to Kamedake. Pins at Kashii and Kamata are approximate.
Timeline & locations
What do the location labels mean?
- Exact
- The pin marks the actual place where it happened or was filmed.
- Approximate
- The right area — a town, park or district — but not a precise spot.
Points and Lines opens on a Tokyo platform. Businessman Tatsuo Yasuda, who has several connections in a ministry under corruption investigation, is seen off from platform 13, and two waitresses with him notice their coworker Toki boarding the Asakaze with a man on the opposite side. The clever part is the view: platform 15 can be seen from platform 13 for only four minutes a day, between 17:57 and 18:01. That tiny gap becomes the key to the whole mystery.
Visitor guidance: Tokyo Station is a working railway station; the four-minute sightline is a story device, so expect no marked spot.
Sources
- Points and Lines
- Locator:
- Plot
- 点と線
- Locator:
- Plot
- Points and Lines
Two bodies are found on a beach in Kashii, Fukuoka. Police call it a double suicide, but veteran detective Shigetaro Torikai suspects foul play and starts investigating on his own. Matsumoto sets the novel in Kashii, and the 1958 film version was shot at Kashii Station. The pin marks Kashii Station.
Location precision: The novel places the bodies on a beach in Kashii without a precise spot; the pin marks Kashii Station.
Visitor guidance: The beach is not marked; Kashii Station is the nearest sure landmark.
Sources
- Points and Lines
- Locator:
- Plot
- 香椎駅
- Locator:
- Related items
- Castle of Sand
- Locator:
- Plot
- Points and Lines
Castle of Sand begins in the early morning of 12 May, when a man's body is found in the rail yard at Kamata, in Tokyo. Detectives learn that the victim spent the previous night talking with a companion in a bar near Kamata Station, and the two kept coming back to one name: Kameda. The case lands on the desk of veteran detective Imanishi.
Location precision: The novel names the Kamata rail yard; the pin marks Kamata Station nearby.
Visitor guidance: Kamata is a railway station in Tokyo; the yard itself is not marked.
Sources
- 砂の器
- Locator:
- Plot
- 砂の器
The only clue is that name, Kameda, overheard in the bar. Imanishi notices that Akita Prefecture has a station called Ugo-Kameda and goes looking for it in the north. In the book the station's existence is an important plot device, and the film and TV versions also show it.
Visitor guidance: Ugo-Kameda Station is a railway station in Yurihonjo, Akita Prefecture.
From there the trail leads to Kamedake. Imanishi finds it on a map of Shimane. Here a constable named Miki Kenichi once protected a seven-year-old boy, Hideo, and his father. The 1974 film did not actually use this station: it shot the platform at Izumo-Yashiro and the station building at Yakawa. The real station is on the Kisuki Line.
Visitor guidance: Kamedake Station is on the JR West Kisuki Line in Okuizumo, Shimane Prefecture.
Sources
- 砂の器
- Locator:
- Plot
- 亀嵩駅
- Locator:
- Novel section
- Kamedake Station
- Locator:
- Lead
- 砂の器
