About a Place in the Kinki Region: Translator's postscript

Thank you for reading my translation of About a Place in the Kinki Region. I took up this project largely to branch out from translating manga, and as such it's my first novel translation. I hope you found it well-structured and a good read. I also hope you found the translation notes to be interesting. When I happened upon this web novel, I quickly decided I wanted to translate it and put it on a backlog—not long later, I found out it was slated for an official translation. However, the version you'll find in bookstores (also titled 'About a Place in the Kinki Region') is a translation of the hardcover edition of the story, published a while after the web novel.

For this project, I have exclusively referred to the web novel, as it's freely available to read online. I haven't incorporated any of the content added to the hardcover edition. Speaking of, there's actually some notable differences between each version of the story. I'll cover the basics here:

Web novel

What you've read thus far is the web novel. Originally pubished in 2023, Sesuji (not to be confused with our story's narrator Sesuji) uploaded this work to a Japanese web novel hosting website, and was soon flooded with interest. It went fairly viral, as viral as such a niche topic could go, and soon saw them picked up for a book deal. Sesuji has published other works both before this (as short stories in various magazines) and after (including an entirely new horror novel.)

Hardcover

The hardcover edition of the story is mostly the same as the web novel. It's edited here and there with some updates in how the story is presented, but much of the content is word-for-word identical. It does, however, feature a little bit of extra content near the end. Most notably, K-san's interview with the Kinki locals is spread out across several parts, and a bit extra is added at the end. The hardcover version also includes a few more images than this edition. I'm not sure whether these images will be included in the official translation, but they're a bit of a step above the three images added to the web novel version. Overall I would argue this is the 'superior' version to the web novel as a single experience, so I recommend picking up the official translation when it's out to have a look.

Manga

I haven't fully read the manga adaption, I'll admit. It seems to be following the plot of the web novel/hardcover to the letter, but the addition of a visual element kinda ruins the horror for me. I'm honestly not a big fan. However, a fan translation is currently being worked on by a scanlation group. If you're interested, I'm sure you can find a website hosting it with a quick google search.

Paperback

This is the most interesting one. A year or two after the Sesuji signed a book deal to publish the hardcover edition of About a Place in the Kinki Region, they released a paperback version to go alongside it. But it's not just a simple re-release at a lower price point, it's a brand new retelling of the story. The paperback version is written from the perspective of Ozawa, who's trying to put together a special feature for a special edition of the horror magazine his department is in charge of. He's not brand new to the industry now, though, he's an experienced editor. To help him with the special feature, he contacts Seno Chihiro, a writer who he once worked with (she takes on a similar role to Sesuji.) Many of the articles are mostly the same or identical, but all of the mystery solving with Sesuji and Ozawa is replaced with entirely new content following a similar structure. Ozawa and Seno work together to understand the mysterious paranormal phenomena, and the truth is revealed much how it is in the other editions. However, there's more to this story. The ending is significantly different in its revelations and conclusion and, ultimately, a much more interesting story in my opinion. I consider this version to be more of a tragedy than the other editions, and I'm more fond of how it depicts the situation regarding the woman in red and Akira-kun. It doesn't seem like the official translation intends to touch on this version of the story, so who knows... Maybe a fan translation will pop up one day... Wink...

Film

And that leads us to the film adaption. Filmmaker Shiraishi Kōji, known for his many mockumentary-style horror movies, is directing this one. Sesuji only provided support for the screenplay, so it's largely someone else's work. The film sees its dual protagonists, Ozawa and Seno (like the paperback edition,) looking into the disappearance of a magazine editor. He leaves behind several videos with contents such as an animated short, a travel vlog, a livestream of the 'Talisman House', and more. As opposed to the novel versions, which use text-based mediums to create a mockumentary style, the film focuses entirely on visual mediums. In this regard, I think it's a worthwhile adaption; it lets the viewer slowly piece together the mystery through seemingly unrelated videos as the protagonists do, and ends with the truth being unveilied in a horrific finale. I haven't seen it. It's only been showing in Japanese theatres thus far, with a digital or DVD release nowhere to be found. I have, however, read up on exactly what happens, and it seems decidedly Shiraishi-esque. If you enjoyed his other similar films like Occult or the Senritsu Kaiki File Kowasugi series, I imagine you'll enjoy this one. As an adaption of the books, though... All I'll say is that it's written to be a horror film, with a climactic finale and a lot of spooks. Personally, I believe I'll continue to find the novel more compelling. But I'll definitely be watching it when it ends up online either way.

ABOUT A PLACE IN THE KINKI REGION EXPLAINED (NOT CLICKBAIT)

Personally, I think the web novel solves all of its mysteries decently enough that there's not much room for confusion. There are, however, a few lingering contradictions that make the explanation ever-so-slightly out of reach (which I'll go into later.) For now, for anyone who 'doesn't get it,' I'll explain the plot of the novel.

Some time in the past, likely between 100 and 200 years ago, a woman is seemingly slain with a mysterious black rock in a rural village in the Kinki (Kansai) region. The villagers hunt down her killer, and accuse an ostracised orphaned farmer—Masaru—whose communication issues had made finding a wife impossible. The bloodied rock was found on his farmland, and the villagers beat the man half to death. He supposedly fell and cracked his head on the rock, dying with his eyes and mouth agape. Wanting to wash their hands of the tragedy, the villagers buried him atop an adjacent mountain and used the rock as a grave marker. Soon after, women from the village were drawn to the mountaintop, some claiming they were being called there by Masaru himself—when they reach his grave, they proceed to bludgeon their heads against it until dead. Believing a terrible curse had befallen them, the villagers constructed a shrine to venerate Masaru and offer him dolls (which he was fond of) and persimmon fruits (which he had... harassed women with???) to placate him. This works, and things are calm for a while. Masaru was remembered as Mashira-sama, and children were taught to fear Mashira-sama as a large white monkey who would snatch them up if they stayed out past curfew. But the shrine housing the rock, which represented Mashira-sama, slowly fell into disrepair alongside the larger shrine complex it was within as Masaru was forgotten.

Some time later, the area the village sat upon was targeted for governmental revitalisation efforts. A dam was built, and soon so was a highway with a mountain pass. In 1987, a section of the mountain was flattened and a large complex of apartment blocks was established on the opposite side of the mountain to the dam. The complex was quickly filled with residents and the local school was expanded to accommodate a new influx of students.

The children at the school create a game called 'Masshiro-sama', where one boy is chosen to be 'Mashiro-sama' and chases the girls until he can catch one. When he does, they must provide him with an offering, called a 'substitute.' This substitute can be anything, from a sock to a hairband, but soon escalates into at least one child murdering their pet to offer to Masshiro-sama. This game, clearly influenced somehow by Masaru, eventually leads to a young boy named Akira being used as a substitute himself. It's not clear exactly how it happens, but Akira is found dead hanging from a tree in a park on the apartment complex grounds. His mother, already a widow, finds him hanging from the tree and desperately jumps up and down trying to pull him free from the tree. Akira's death becomes a major topic of speculation across the media, with many opining on what happened and what caused his death. His mother is harassed by reporters, and is even accused of domestic violence. A reporter from a tabloid magazine interviews her, pretending to be sympathetic, and goes on to write an article which paints her in a bad light.

In 1989, an elementary school girl goes missing near her home under mysterious circumstances. A male relative is speculated by some to be responsible, who later takes his own life. A trucker reports an encounter with the girl far from her home. Along the highway near the mountain area where Masaru is enshrined, the trucker finds her by the edge of the mountain forest. She claims she has become a bride, and runs off. Masaru is now trying to lure girls and women towards him, and is somehow influencing the minds of men to help deliver them to him. Women lured to the area jump to their deaths, or are pushed to their deaths by the men who bring them there. By doing this, they become his 'brides.' Additionally, he is spotted in physical form as a large pale-white humanoid, but refuses to leave the mountain. Masaru seemingly only makes females who have yet to bear children his brides, but still ends up luring in in mothers sometimes.

At some point, a hotel-like building was also constructed somewhere near the dam. It's unclear whether they were the original occupants, but as far as we know, in 1991, a women-only cult known as Spiritual Space first used the building as a facility for their activities. Spiritual Space stole the rock representing Masaru and used it as a conduit to 'the universe' as part of their new religion. As part of their activities, they created square talismans depicting a figure in a torii gate with the Japanese character for 'woman' written in each corner, handing them out freely to gain new followers. It's implied that they are indirectly doing Masaru's bidding—the now largely forgotten being he became was beginning to get restless, and wanted more offerings—by spreading this sticker, they were seemingly allowing his influence to grow. It's reported that a number of the cult's followers committed suicide, sometimes family suicide, likely indicating that Masaru was obtaining brides from the group.

In 1999, a woman loses her only child in a car accident. This woman is the narrator for the story, Sesuji.

Akira's grieving mother joins Spiritual Space. She ends up fully believing that she can ascend to the truth of the universe and is ultimately seeking a way to reunite with her son. Around this time, a female writer (Sesuji) working for a paranormal magazine infiltrates the cult. She meets Akira's mother and also observes the cult worshipping the black rock and creating the talismans. Overcome with nausea, she calls the editors and has them rescue her from the facility via a call to the emergency services. The writer finished her report on what happened but is soon hospitalised. She forgets everything about visiting the cult and what she saw, seemingly being freed for Masaru and the rock's pull. Not long after this, Akira's mother steals the rock from the Spiritual Space facility and takes it home. She begins creating talismans like the cult followers did, but replaces the character for 'woman' with the character for her son's name. She distributes these talismans and sticks them all over her house and neighbourhood. Soon after, she hangs herself in her home. The cult disbands soon after the rock is stolen and the facility is left abandoned.

Through the rock's power, Akira's mother is able to bring him back. However, instead of her son, a paranormal entity that looks like her son but only seeks to consume life is brought into the world. Akira's mother is similarly turned into a paranormal entity known as the 'woman in red' and the 'jumping woman', an entity which seeks to make people aware of Akira so that he can haunt them and 'eat' them. When he eats them, which seems to be consuming their soul, their still-living bodies seek out the closest high point to the mountain—an apartment block on the complex grounds—and jump to their death. Akira the entity has inherited some behaviours similar to Masaru, but it's ultimately unclear if this is his influence or the rock's.

Masaru and the woman in red independently cause many paranormal incidents that can be linked to the area around the mountain. While they cause similar things to happen, they are implied to be in contention with each other. These paranormal incidents catch the attention of horror fanatics and paranormal investigators, including the weekly magazine that covered Spiritual Space. This magazine is under the same publishing company as the tabloid that interviewed Akira's mother. At the time, nobody links these incidents together as they happen at opposite ends of the mountain and are spread out. The details of each individual incident aren't too important. Ultimately, many lives are lost as Masaru lures people to the mountain and Akira eats people, both causing 'suicides' by jumping. Both the dam and the apartment block become known suicide spots.

The head editor for the weekly paranormal magazine, known as S, starts to piece together that something is going on in this specific area of the Kinki region. He heads there and interviews locals, learning the story of Masaru. He later swiftly resigns from his job. It seems to be implied that he's been influenced by Masaru. The magazine is then shut down, turning into an occassional release as a special edition.

Masaru and the woman in red broaden their tactics to find victims. They use technology like the internet to spread their respective curses far and wide, gathering more and more 'intermediaries' (in Masaru's case, men willing to bring offerings. In the woman in red's case, anyone she can catch the attention of.) We see that Masaru still accepts dolls as substitutes, but this requires a very strong conviction from the men being influenced to avoid sacrificing their loved ones. It seems they go on to wander around trying to lure in strangers at random. The woman in red haunts anyone she can, and simply knowing a little too much about the truth is enough to make yourself vulnerable to her.

Akira's home is abandoned after his mother's suicide, and it becomes a famous haunted location. Through an internet messageboard thread, an entity (likely Masaru) influences a poster to travel to the house and retrieve the black rock. It's unclear what happens to it after this.

Much later, in the 2020s, a newbie editor by the name of Ozawa is charged with putting together a special edition of the paranormal magazine. With little budget, he begins searching through back-issues for something interesting. He's drawn to several of the incidents dotted around the Kinki region, unknowingly becoming wrapped up in the curse like S had. He contacts Sesuji, who he had coincidentally met a while prior, for her industry expertise to help source more information. In a follow-up meeting, Sesuji learns enough that she attracts the woman in red. The woman in red forces Sesuji to write this story by never leaving her alone—Sesuji, who hopes she'll be free if she does so, gives in.

Ozawa is eventually drawn in so far that he heads to the Kinki region. He is influenced by Masaru to lure in a woman and commit a murder suicide by jumping into the dam. Sesuji begins publishing the story on a web novel site, but struggles with her remaining sanity to try and end the story early. She's unable to, and the readers now know too much. The woman in red finally leaves her alone, but now Sesuji has caught Akira's attention.

Closing thoughts

So the story mostly lines up quite nicely, but there's some remaining questions. Let me preface by saying I'll be offering my own speculation here based on what we know.

Firstly, what is the black rock? They seem to be describing a meteorite, and it's entirely possible that the rock struck the woman in Masaru's village entirely without Masaru having a hand in it when it fell from the sky. Masaru then went on to die by cracking his head against it. I believe the rock is the ultimate corrupting force here, and this is in actuality something of a 'cosmic horror' story. It seems the rock itself is influenced in turn by what it corrupts, but the one thing it always does is drive people to kill themselves or others. Whether that be women bashing their head against it, or via the much more elaborate acts of Masaru and Akira. It's left unclear what exactly the rock is, as that's outside the scope of the story—at the very least, it's capable of creating paranormal entities like Masaru and Akira. As an unknowable entity, it serves the story well by being the one truly unexplainable thing.

Secondly, there's the shrine. The old man who explains Masaru's story never mentioned the much larger shrine on the mountain, and implies that the shrine itself was built for Masaru's sake after his death and subsequent suicides, but the rock is housed in a small shrine at the edge of the larger complex, while the main shrine worships some other unspecified deity. What this larger shrine was is conspicuously left a mystery.

Lastly, who thought it was a good idea to give Masaru internet? He gets access to the internet and immediately starts going on porn sites trying to talk to the adult actresses and hanging out on a 2channel analogue. This man is a menace. The woman in red is doing interesting stuff like distributing stickers over e-mail, haunting printers, making spooky websites, and recording a cursed video. Meanwhile Masaru is acting like an edgy teenager. Someone take his iPad away.

With all that said, I'd like to thank you again for reading my translation. It was entirely a solo project, but I did have considerable help with proofreading from my friend Enigma. As thanks, I'd like to promote their Tumblr where they primarily post translations of Japanese mystery fiction. You can find them at https://liljplibrary.tumblr.com/ (opens in a new tab.)

That's all from me. I have no socials to link. For future updates (like whether I'll start working on translating the paperback,) check Novel Updates.

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