| Sugawara Akitada | |
| First: | Instruments of Murder |
| Creator: | I. J. Parker |
| Gender: | Male |
| Occupation: | Civil servant |
| Nationality: | Japanese |
is a fictional character and a hero in a series of historical detective/mystery short stories and novels written by I. J. Parker, set in the Heian period of ancient Japan.
The character lived in 11th century Japan, and came from a family of scholar-officials. It was revealed through short stories and novels that he was trained in orthodox (Confucianist) education, followed his family's tradition of entering the university, and graduated first in the final year, having specialised in law. His family suffered financially when prior to the completion of his education, his father died.
In the stories, Sugawara Akitada entered the civil service as a junior clerk in the Ministry of Law, with an income barely able to support his family: his mother who was shown as always being inexplicably hostile to him (the reason not revealed until the novel Hell Screen), two younger sisters and a small staff of family retainers.
As according to the era, the character was shown to be under immense pressure for the great responsibility to ensure his sisters married well - the only promising path for women of the era. Finding successful 'good' match would depend on the level of prestige of the family (as reflected through social status, wealth and rank), and the dowry he could offer.
The character's inquisitive mind and strong sense of justice got him involved in a variety of difficult cases, which he was usually able to solve, some in his personal capacity, some in the capacity of his job.
The main frustrations faced though was that his stubborn nature was not appreciated in a society, especially within the bureaucracy, which prized orthodoxy, conformity (to hierarchy), stability and unquestioning obedience to figures of authority. In the stories, Akitada was constantly reprimanded and even dismissed several times by his superiors.
To balance the odds, the author gave him allies in the form of several influential personages in the Imperial Court who respected and supported him, and appreciated his integrity.
According to the author herself, "The writing of the first Akitada novels actually predates the stories by more than a decade, but it was to be the stories that brought the novels into print."[1]
The following is a list of stories, in chronological order of publication in Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine, that features Sugawara Akitada:
In November 2011,[3] eleven of these short stories were arranged chronologically within-universe [4] and packaged in a volume titled "Akitada and the Way of Justice:" [5]
The Kamo Horse was republished as part of a collection raising money for the 2011 Japan Relief Fund administered by the Japan America Society of Southern California.[6]
In February 2012,[7] three of the short stories--Death and Cherry Blossoms, The Incense Murders, and Instruments of Murder—were packaged and republished in a volume called "Three Tales of Love and Murder."[8]
In May 2012,[9] three of the short stories--The New Year's Gift, The O-Bon Cat, and The Tanabata Magpie—were packaged and republished in a volume called "Akitada's Holiday."[10]
The following is a list of full-length novels featuring Sugawara Akidata:
The initial publisher (St. Martin's Press) decided to publish the novels in a different order from the internal chronological order of the novels.
In 2004, the author switched publisher to Penguin Group with the agreement to publish the novels according to internal chronology.
After publication of "The Fires of the Gods" in 2011, the author could not find a publisher who would publish the novel in print and released the stories only in Kindle. This continued until 2013 when the author decided to go into self-publishing for the rest of her novels in this series.
As of 2008, Books on Tape has signed to produce the above titles as an audiobook series, being read by actor Roy Vongtama.