Haiku killer reveals remote community's elderly feud
MARK WILLACY THU 1 AUG 2013, 8:16 PM AEST
A
Japanese man who killed five of his neighbours in a small, remote town and left a traditional Japanese verse at the scene has been dubbed the 'haiku killer' as stories emerge of feuds between the community's elderly that led up to the murders.
7.30 POSTED THU 1 AUG 2013, 8:16 PM AEST
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LEIGH SALES, PRESENTER: He's been dubbed the 'Haiku Killer' after the traditional three-line Japanese verse he left behind after bludgeoning five of his neighbours to death.
The gruesome murders happened in a remote Hamlet in Japan's west, in a community so small only 10 residents remain after the killings.
After a five-day manhunt, police found the Haiku Killer hiding out in thick forest in the mountains surrounding his village. They're now untangling a vicious web of fight, feuds and ill-feeling among the community's elderly residents that led to the killings.
The ABC's north Asia correspondent Mark Willacy reports from the scene of the murders in Mitake in Japan's rugged far west.
MARK WILLACY, REPORTER: It's a place that doesn't care for outsiders, a community bound by its blood ties and by its isolation.
Mitake is a remote Hamlet deep in the forest. Its 10 homes are often hidden by mountain mists and it seems the people of Mitake had a lot to hide.
To get to Mitake takes hours on narrow, winding roads. It really is off the beaten track. It truly is the flipside to the neon mega cities we've come to associate with Japan, obscured from sight, ignored by outsiders; it seems Mitake was the perfect place for murder.
This village is now infamous across Japan for the so-called 'Haiku killings', the slaying of five of its elderly residents, each found with their skulls smashed in. A gruesome crime in a country where the murder rate is less than half that of Australia's.
Police were alerted to the killings when the homes of three of the victims were set on fire. Suspicion immediately fell on one of the villagers, a man long denounced as a trouble-maker. Shortly after the fires, 63-year-old Kosei Homi vanished, leaving behind a haiku poem stuck to the window of his home.
Three chilling verses that summed up the crime and seemed to mock the victims.
(EXTRACT FROM HAIKU) Setting the fire, Smoke gives delight to a country fellow. (END OF EXTRACT)
JINSUKE KAGEYAMA, PROF, JAPAN ASSN OF CRIMINOLOGY (TRANSLATED): Country fellow is an offensive term. He was insulting his neighbours for being country bumpkins.
MARK WILLACY: As reporters descended on Mitake it became clear this story was years in the making. It was a tale of old hatreds, of festering feuds and of an aging village that had turned against one of its own.
JUNKO UCHIGAMI, TBS NETWORK CRIME REPORTER (TRANSLATED): Before the murders, Homi had proposed revitalisation projects to the other villagers but they rejected his ideas. That triggered ill will between Homi and the others. He then became isolated by the rest of the village.
MARK WILLACY: In Japan its called murahachibu the ostracism of someone seen to have broken the village rules but the people of Mitake say it was Homi who was shunning them.
MITAKE RESIDENT (TRANSLATED): He didn't speak much. He tried to avoid us and he wouldn't attend community meetings.
MITAKE RESIDENT 2 (TRANSLATED): He would not greet me even though I bowed to him.
MARK WILLACY: In some of the items 7:30 discovered decorating the front of Homi's now empty home suggest he didn't exactly fit into this conservative community.
JINSUKE KAGEYAMA (TRANSLATED): This village is a typical mountain community where only the elderly are left. The killer had returned 20 years ago to care for his parents but he felt out of place. He had troubles with his neighbours that developed into grudges so he sought revenge.
MARK WILLACY: And Kosei Homi's revenge would be as swift as it was brutal.
Police believe Homi, the killer, snuck into this home after the occupants had gone to bed. He then bludgeoned them to death and set the place on fire. It's then believed Homi killed three other villagers in their homes before flee nothing to the forest.
Police then launched a massive manhunt involving helicopters, dogs and motorbikes and when they found him five days later sitting in his underwear on a mountain trail, Homi immediately confessed to the murders.
JUNKO UCHIGAMI (TRANSLATED): One-third of the villagers were murdered. This is such a shocking crime in Japan, one of extraordinary cruelty. I've been a crime reporter for 17 years and this case is very, very strange. It reflects on the failure of human relationships in this community.
MARK WILLACY: Since the murders, reports have emerged of nasty squabbles, vandalism, physical fights and even a stabbing among the elderly villagers of Mitake. Far from being an idyllic mountain hamlet in a country known for its politeness and social harmony, it seems Mitake was a nest of vipers.
JINSUKE KAGEYAMA: The murderer in this case was in his 60s and the victims in their 70s and 80s. This case reflects the aging of Japan but it also reflects the unseen anger and resentment in many of these isolated communities.
LEIGH SALES: Mark Willacy with that report.
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