Fake Kyoto Bijutsu Jiken Emaki

Synopsis

The famous painting ‘Chickens among Pine Trees’ by Ito Jakuchu, an Edo period painter who was active in Kyoto in the 18th century, is discovered for the first time in 100 years. The Mukai Museum, which has planned an exhibition of his works, is sent a letter that warns of a robbery. On the day of a private preview, a note with the words “A fake is being hung” is received as Detective Shiraishi Ako and police from the Kyoto Prefectural Police’s San-jo Precinct tighten security. The sender of the note is Urasawa Yu. She is a part-time university lecturer and has come on behalf of Professor Sudo Yasutaro who assists the police in cases involving objects of art. Because Yu is the only daughter of the venerable Urasawa Antiques, she has been close to artworks since a young age and her expert opinion rivals that of her mother, Yoko, the owner of Urasawa Antiques. A fake work is a very delicate matter, but at Yu’s suggestion, the director of the museum instructs the curator to suspend the exhibition. At that moment, the dead body of a man is discovered in an apartment. It is determined that he is the same person as the man who was caught on Mukai Museum’s security cameras. However, the painting of the ‘Chickens among Pine Trees’ is not found in the man’s home …

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