Hercule Flambeau is a fictional character created by English novelist G. K. Chesterton, who appears in 48 short stories about the character Father Brown. A master criminal, his surname ‘Flambeau’ is an alias, the French word for a flaming torch.
Later, Flambeau leaves his criminal career and becomes a detective himself. It has been suggested that Agatha Christie’s famous detective Hercule Poirot was inspired by the character.
A typical Chesterton’s Father Brown story aims not so much to invent a believable criminological procedure as to propose a novel paradox with subtle moral and theological implications. Similarly, Takuan story is aiming no so much to design a sophisticated heists but to relay certain moral principles.
Flambeau himself lives to his alias by committing his crimes in daring manner, acting right under the nose of police. Takuan inherits this trait: his tricks are not the ones that are done at night, but the ones that are done in plain sight.
As a notorious and elusive criminal, Flambeau is a worry for law-enforcers. He is exposed by Father Brown, and later becomes a detective himself. In a similar way, Sung-Guan is being caught by the temple monk Soliang and later becomes a demon hunter.