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The Camphorwood Custodian, The Miracles of the Namiya General Store Author Keigo Higashino Dies

Higashino was born in Osaka in 1958. He debuted as a writer in 1985 with his Hōkago (After School) mystery novel, which won the Edogawa Rampo Prize. Other award-winning novels by Higashino include Yōgisha X no Kenshin (The Devotion of Suspect X), The Miracles of the Namiya General Store, Mugenbana (Dream Flower), and Inori no Maku ga Oriru Toki (The Final Curtain), among others. Higashino also wrote the Galileo detective novel series.

Higashino's The Miracles of the Namiya General Store (Namiya Zakkaten no Kiseki) novel was serialized in Kadokawa's Shosetsu Yasei Jidai literary and novel magazine in 2011. Kadokawa published the novel in one volume in 2012. Yen Press published the novel in English in 2019. The novel inspired stage play adaptations in 2013 and 2016, musical stage plays in 2017 and recently in March 2025, and a live-action film also in 2017.

Higashino's 1998 Himitsu (Secret) novel inspired a live-action film in 1999 and a live-action drama in 2010. Vertical published the novel under the English title Naoko: A Novel in 2004.

Higashino's Kusunoki no Bannin (The Camphorwood Custodian) novel inspired an anime film, which opened in Japan on January 30. The film sold 94,500 tickets and earned 124,985,320 yen (about US$800,400) in its first three days, and ranked at #3 in its first weekend. The film also screened in "Annecy Presents," one of the non-competitive sections of the Annecy International Animation Film Festival, in June. 

The live-action film adaptation of Higashino's Hakuchō to Kōmori (Swans and Bats) novel is scheduled to open in Japan on September 4, and the live-action film adaptation of his Satsujin no Mon novel will open in Japan on February 19, 2027.

Source: Asahi Shimbun via Yaraon!