Mōryō no Hako
| Mōryō no Hako | |
| 魍魎の匣 | |
|---|---|
| Genre | Horror, Mystery |
| Novel | |
| Written by | Natsuhiko Kyogoku |
| Published by | Kodansha |
| Published | January 1995 |
| Live-action film | |
| Directed by | Masato Harada |
| Written by | Masato Harada |
| Studio | Planet Future |
| Released | December 22, 2007 |
| Runtime | 133 minutes |
| Manga | |
| Written by | Aki Shimizu |
| Published by | Kadokawa |
| Demographic | Seinen |
| Magazine | Kai |
| Original run | August 2007 – April 2010 |
| Volumes | 5 |
| Anime television series | |
| Directed by | Ryosuke Nakamura |
| Written by | Sadayuki Murai |
| Studio | Madhouse |
| Original network | NTV |
| Original run | October 7, 2008 – December 30, 2008 |
| Episodes | 13 |
Mōryō no Hako (魍魎の匣?, "The Mōryō's Box") is a Japanese novel by Natsuhiko Kyogoku. It is the second novel in the Kyōgokudō series that began with Summer of the Ubume. The novel has been turned into a live action feature film, a manga, and an anime TV series.
The story takes place between August and October, 1952. It primarily follows crime fiction writer Tatsumi Sekiguchi and news magazine editor Morihiko Toriguchi as they investigate, with the help of onmyōji Akihiko Chūzenji, a series of unusual crimes that take place in Musashino and Mitaka.
Kanako Yuzuki and Yoriko Kusumoto are friends and middle school students. The two plan to go to Lake Sagami over summer break. On the night they are to leave, Kanako is hit by the train on which Tokyo police detective Shutarō Kiba is traveling. After the hospital stabilizes Kanako, her older sister, Yōko Yuzuki, has Kanako transferred to Kōshirō Mimasaka's research hospital. Several days later, the discovery of a severed arm and two boxed, severed legs catches the attention of Toriguchi, who travels by automobile with Atsuko Chūzenji and Sekiguchi to investigate.
Yoriko tells Kiba that Kanako was pushed into the train by a man wearing gloves. Shortly afterward, Kanako is apparently abducted from the hospital; Mimasaka's assistant, Tarō Suzaki, is murdered; and Kanako's guardian, Noritada Amemiya, also disappears. Witnesses report seeing a gloved man in the area where three other girls are soon abducted. Residents of the surrounding area later discover the girls' boxed, severed limbs.
Noriyuki Masuoka, the lawyer for Kanako's grandfather, hires private investigator Reijirō Enokizu to find Kanako. Masuoka explains that Yōko is actually Kanako's mother. Kanako is unaware of her true parentage, but she is the only heir to the fortune of Yōkō Shibata, who appointed Amemiya as her guardian.
Toriguchi obtains a list, labeled "Onbako-sama", of believers in a local cult led by Hyōei Terada, a self-proclaimed onmyōji. Toriguchi believes Terada is involved with the dismemberment case, because all the dismemberment victims are daughters of Terada's followers. Sekiguchi notices two names on the list: Yoriko's mother, and fiction writer Shunkō Kubo. As a fellow writer for the same publisher, Sekiguchi already knows Kubo, who always wears gloves. After Enokizu and Sekiguchi meet with Yoriko, she meets Kubo, who takes her to an abandoned temple filled with boxes. Later, Yoriko's severed arms are found.
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