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 Toyko 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.
Soseki's major works include:
- I Am a Cat[?]
- Botchan[?]
- The Poppy[?]
- The Three-Cornered World[?]
- The Miner[?]
- 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)
External link
- Soseki page (http://209.11.144.65/eldritchpress/ns/soseki.html) including links to the entire text of Kokoro