Tokyo ( CNN ) -- A 63-year-old man wanted in connection with the murder of five people in a remote Japanese hamlet has been captured after a manhunt involving more than 400 police . Three bodies were found on Sunday after two houses in Mitake , a tiny community in western Japan 's Yamaguchi prefecture , were gutted by a `` suspicious '' fire , Yamaguchi police spokesman Katsumi Harada told CNN on Wednesday . The following morning , two more corpses were found a few hundred meters away in the same neighborhood in the victims ' respective homes . An autopsy revealed that all five victims were killed by injuries to the head , prompting police to set up a task force to investigate a possible serial killer , Harada said . The wanted man -- who lived next to the burned out houses -- disappeared , prompting a huge manhunt . Police found the man in the mountains barely 1 km from the village . He was barefoot , wearing only his underwear when he was discovered , police spokesman Kazutaka Umemoto told CNN . The man was then taken to the nearest police station at Shunan for questioning . The case attracted significant media attention after a note , apparently written in the form of a `` haiku '' poem -- a short form of Japanese verse -- was left hanging in the window of the fugitive man 's home . According to the authorities , the poem translated as : `` Setting on fire , smoke gives delight , to country fellows . '' They have refused to draw a link between the poem and the killings . Mitake is a remote , mountainous community with less than 20 inhabitants . According to local media , the arrested man lived alone , and moved into the neighborhood about 20 years ago to take care of his elderly parents . Reports suggested the man grew increasingly alienated in the small community after his parents died about 7-8 years ago . One of the victims frequently quarreled with him over his dog , according to Yomiuri Shimbun , Japan 's largest newspaper .
Police have captured a 63-year - old man in connection with a series of killings . They were discovered in remote village in northern Japan ; their house burned down . A note , in the form of a poem , was found in the pocket of man police are hunting .