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Hanshichi Mikawa is a character who appeared in Lupin the Third Part II and was a detective.
Biography[]
Hanshichi Mikawa was a traditional minded detective who worked around the Taito Ward in Tokyo. As a police officer, he believes in duty and sentiment unlike the other officers who only care about promotion. His jutte is his soul as a police officer and unable to part away from it. At home, he sits down and bows. When he drinks his tea, he believe in fate whether the tea stalk in his cup floated upwards or not.
History[]
Before Koichi Zenigata chased Lupin, Hanshichi's only purpose was to arrest Lupin III.
Ten years before the episode, Lupin's plane had crashed in the Tanigawa Valley after robbing a bank and Hanshichi went after him. Despite protests, he climbed the mountain in the snowstorm and found Lupin. After chasing Lupin, he couldn't make the jump over and was hanging on a branch. Lupin ended up helping him by carrying him up and after deciding, Lupin sacrificed the money to save Hanshichi by putting him into the bag.
Despite that Lupin saved his life, he got frostbite and developed arthritis. He quickly became a joke to the police unable to capture criminals. He tried to stop a thief heading out of Ueno Station and managed to caught him at Ueno Park by the statue of Saigō Takamori however the thief cried showing Hanshichi a photo of his children that caused the detective to be compassionate, he got kicked by the thief and unable to catch him due to his arthritis.
Unlike the rest of the police, Zenigata however respected the detective to the point of being protective and called him "his senior". Zenigata also understand how Hanshichi feels regarding Lupin, he even understands of being left alone. Yet behind his back, even Zenigata wonders if he is getting too old-fashioned.
Both Zenigata and Hanshichi held Lupin up in a cell however he escaped due to that Hanshichi's deduction that Lupin doesn't get drunk and his comical appearance.
By the end, Hanshichi managed to fool Lupin by relocating to Hawaii with the Goddess of Mercy and had significantly gained weight. His reason for moving was that he was getting fed up of the "narrow-mindedness of Japan".
Source material[]
Hanshichi Mikawa is based on Inspector Hanshichi, an Edo era detective created by Okamoto Kido. He appeared in 67 stories with the first being The Ghost of Ofumi published in January 1917 and the author considered him to be a Sherlock Holmes type of detective from the Edo era.[1][2]While he did not have a last name in the stories, he lived in Mikawa and was also nicknamed "the boss of Mikawa" (三河の親分, Mikawa no Oyabun).[3]
An English translation of 14 stories was translated by Ian MacDonald as "The Curious Casebook of Inspector Hanshichi".
Etymology[]
- Hanshichi means "half" (半) (han) and "seven" (七) (shichi).
- Mikawa means "three" (三) (mi) and "river, stream" (河) (kawa).