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Akimitsu Takagi (1920-1995) is one of the greatest Japanese crime writers of the 20th century.

Born in Aomori in northern Japan, Akimitsu Takagi became one of Japan’s most popular authors in the period following the end of the Second World War. Born into a family of doctors, a scientist trained at Kyoto University with the country’s elite, Takagi left the aeronautical sector after the defeat and invested himself in writing in an unusual way, on the advice of a fortune-teller. His interest in tattooing was a determining factor in the plot of his first novel: Shisei Satsujin Jiken. Published in 1948, this investigation into the murders of tattooed people in devastated post-war Tokyo was an immediate success. It launched his career. When he died in 1995, he left behind more than 250 stories. In Japan, his books sold several million copies.

― from “The Tattoo Writer”