Japanese police arrest haiku poet after five killings

Updated July 26, 2013 19:19:45

Japanese police have arrested a man who left a haiku poem when he disappeared after five people were murdered in a tiny mountain village.

Investigators found Kosei Homi, 63, dressed only in his underwear in mountains near the hamlet in western Yamaguchi prefecture, police and reports said.

The manhunt began on Sunday after officers found three corpses inside two burned-out houses. They subsequently uncovered two more bodies in separate homes.

The five victims, who all appeared to have been battered to death, were in their 70s or 80s and represented a third of the population of the hamlet, local reports said.

Police had found a haiku stuck to the window of Homi's house.


It customarily evokes natural phenomena and usually involves a reference to the seasons.

The haiku read: "Setting a fire - smoke gives delight - to a country fellow."

Homi had a reputation in the village as a trouble-maker, reports said.

Investigators had found a mobile phone registered to him and a shirt and pants, believed to be his, in mountains nearby on Thursday as they homed in on the fugitive, Jiji press said.

He was arrested on suspicion of the murder of one of the dead women. Investigations into the other deaths were ongoing, police said.



First posted July 26, 2013 18:29:07