Kido Okamoto

Kido Okamoto (1872–1939) was a trailblazing Japanese author and playwright. Best known for creating the "New Kabuki" (Shin Kabuki) movement and introducing detective fiction to Japan, he seamlessly blended historical tradition with modern Western storytelling in his celebrated stage plays and mystery novels. Deeply inspired by Western authors like Arthur Conan Doyle, Okamoto is largely credited with creating the Japanese detective story. His most famous creation, Hanshichi Torimono-chō (translated as The Curious Casebook of Inspector Hanshichi), follows a detective solving crimes in Edo-period Japan. It is widely considered the very first Japanese detective series.