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Natsume Soseki (夏目
漱石,
1867 -
1916) is the
pen-name of Natsume Kinnosuke, a Japanese novelist, scholar of
British literature, and composer of
Chinese poetry. He is best known for his novels
Kokoro and
I Am a Cat. His portrait appears
on the front of the 1000 yen bill.
Born on February 9, 1867 as Natsume Kinnosuke in the city
of
Edo (modern-day
Tokyo), Natsume Soseki began his life as an unwanted child, born to his
mother late in her life. His parents foisted him off on a former household
servant (Shiobara Masanosuke) and his wife, by whom he was brought up until
the age of nine. He returned to his household and was welcomed by his mother
though regarded as a nuisance by his father. His mother died when he was
fourteen.
In middle school, Kinnosuke became enamored with
Chinese literature, and fancied that he might someday become a writer.
However, his family disapproved strongly of this course of action, and when
Kinnosuke entered
Tokyo University in September of 1884, it was with the intention of
becoming an architect. He began studying English at that time, feeling that
it might prove useful to him in his future career.
In 1887, Kinnosuke entered
Tokyo Imperial University, where he met
Masaoka Shiki, a friend who would give him encouragement on the path to
becoming a writer, which would ultimately be his career. Shiki tutored
Kinnosuke in the art of composing
haiku. From this point on, Kinnosuke began signing his poems with the
name Soseki, which is a Chinese idiom meaning "stubborn". In 1890, Soseki
entered the English literature department, and quickly became a master of
the English language. Soseki graduated in 1893, and enrolled for some time
as a graduate student and part-time teacher at the
Tokyo Normal School.
Soseki began teaching at
Ehime Prefecture Middle School in
Shikoku in 1895, which is the setting of his novel
Botchan. Along with fulfilling his
teaching duties, Soseki published haiku and Chinese poetry in a number of
newspapers and periodicals. He resigned his post in 1896 and began teaching
at the Fifth High School in
Kumamoto. On June 10 of that year, he married Nakane Kyoko.
In 1900, Soseki was sent as an emissary by the Japanese
government to study in England. He had a miserable time of it, spent most of
his days indoors buried in books, and his friends feared that he might be
losing his mind. Nevertheless, he solidified his knowledge of English
literature and returned to Japan at the end of 1902. The following year, he
received a professorship at
Tokyo Imperial University where he taught English literature.
Soseki's literary career began in 1905 when he wrote a
short story entitled
I Am a Cat, which was such a
public success that he began serializing it in
Hototogisu, a prominent literary
journal of the time, founded by his friend Masaoka Shiki. Soon after he
published
Botchan, another work which won
him wide public admiration as well as critical acclaim. He began writing
full-time in 1907, when he left his post at the university for a position
with
Asahi Newspaper. He began writing
one novel a year until his death from a stomach ulcer in 1916.
Major themes in Soseki's works include ordinary people
fighting against economic hardship, the conflict between duty and desire,
loyalty and group mentality versus freedom and individuality, personal
isolation and estrangement, the rapid industrialization of Japan and its
social consequences, contempt of Japan's aping of Western culture, and a
pessimistic view of human nature.
Soseki's major works include:
-
I Am a Cat
-
Botchan
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The Poppy
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The Three-Cornered World
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The Miner
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Sanshiro
-
And Then
-
The Gate
-
To the Spring Equinox and Beyond
-
The Wayfarer
-
Kokoro
-
My Individualism,
a famous speech
-
Inside My Glass Doors
-
Light and Darkness
(unfinished)
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