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夏目漱石Born as Natsume Kinnosuke in the town of Babashita in the Edo region of Ushigome (present Kikui, Shinjuku), Sōseki 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 although regarded as a nuisance by his father. His mother died when he was fourteen, and his two eldest brothers died in 1887, intensifying his sense of insecurity.[citation needed]
Sōseki attended the First Tokyo Middle School (now Hibiya High School), where he 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 Sōseki entered the Tokyo Imperial University (now the University of Tokyo) in September 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.[citation needed]
In 1887, Sōseki 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 him in the art of composing haiku. From this point on, Sōseki began signing his poems with the name Sōseki, which is a Chinese idiom meaning "stubborn". In 1890, Sōseki entered the English Literature department, and quickly became a master of the English language. Sōseki graduated in 1893, and enrolled for some time as a graduate student and part-time teacher at the Tokyo Normal School.[citation needed]
Sōseki began teaching at Matsuyama Middle School in Shikoku, in 1895, which is the setting of his novel Botchan. Along with fulfilling his teaching duties, Sōseki 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.[citation needed]
Natsume Soseki's lodgings in Clapham, South London
In the United Kingdom, 1901-1903
In 1900, the Japanese government sent Sōseki to study in Great Britain as "Japan's first Japanese English literary scholar". He visited Cambridge and stayed a night there, but gave up the idea of studying at the university because he could not afford it on his government scholarship. He had a miserable time of it in London, spending most of his days indoors buried in books, and his friends feared that he might be losing his mind. He also visited Pitlochry in Scotland.
He lived in four different lodgings, only the last of which, lodging with Priscilla and her sister Elizabeth Leale in Clapham (see the photograph), proved satisfactory. Five years later, in his preface to Bungakuron (The Criticism of Literature), he wrote about the period:
The two years I spent in London were the most unpleasant years in my life. Among English gentlemen I lived in misery, like a poor dog that had strayed among a pack of wolves.[citation needed]
He got along well with the Leale sisters, who shared his love of literature (notably Shakespeare and Milton) and spoke fluent French, much to his admiration. The Leales were a Channel Island family, and Priscilla had been born in France. The sisters worried about Sōseki's incipient paranoia and successfully urged him to get out more and take up cycling.
Despite his poverty, loneliness, and mental problems, he solidified his knowledge of English literature during this period and returned to Japan in 1903.
After his return to the Empire of Japan, he replaced Koizumi Yakumo (Lafcadio Hearn) at the First Higher School, and subsequently became a professor of English literature at Tokyo Imperial University, where he taught literary theory and literary criticism.[citation needed]
Literary career
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Sōseki's literary career began in 1903, when he began to contribute haiku, renku (haiku-style linked verse), haitaishi (linked verse on a set theme) and literary sketches to literary magazines, such as the prominent Hototogisu, edited by his former mentor Masaoka Shiki, and later by Takahama Kyoshi. However, it was the public success of his short story Wagahai wa neko de aru ("I Am a Cat") in 1905 that won him wide public admiration as well as critical acclaim.[citation needed]
He followed on this success with short stories, such as Rondon tō ("Tower of London") in 1905 and the novels Botchan ("Little Master"), and Kusamakura ("Grass Pillow") in 1906, which established his reputation, and which enabled him to leave his post at the university for a position with Asahi Shimbun in 1907, and to begin writing full-time. Much of his work deals with the relation between Japanese culture and Western culture. Especially his early works are influenced by his studies in London; his novel Kairo-kō was the earliest and only major prose treatment of the Arthurian legend in Japanese. He began writing one novel a year until his death from a stomach ulcer in 1916.
Obverse of a 1984 series 1000 Japanese yen banknote
Major themes in Sōseki's works include ordinary people fighting against economic hardship, the conflict between duty and desire (a traditional Japanese theme; see giri), 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. Sōseki took a strong interest in the writers of the Shirakaba (White Birch) literary group. In his final years, authors such as Ryūnosuke Akutagawa and Kume Masao became close followers of his literary style.[citation needed]
Major works
Sōseki's major works include:
Year Japanese title English title Comments
1905 吾輩は猫である Wagahai wa Neko dearu I Am a Cat
倫敦塔 Rondon Tō The Tower of London
薤露行 Kairo-kō Kairo-kō
1906 坊っちゃん Botchan Botchan
草枕 Kusamakura The Three-Cornered World
(lit. The Grass Pillow) latest translation uses Japanese title
趣味の遺伝 Shumi no Iden The Heredity of Taste
二百十日 Nihyaku-tōka The 210th Day
1907 虞美人草 Gubijinsō The Poppy
1908 坑夫 Kōfu The Miner
夢十夜 Yume Jū-ya Ten Nights of Dreams
三四郎 Sanshirō Sanshiro
1909 それから Sorekara And Then, a novel
1910 門 Mon The Gate
思ひ出す事など Omoidasu Koto nado Spring Miscellany
1912 彼岸過迄 Higan Sugi Made To the Spring Equinox and Beyond
行人 Kōjin The Wayfarer
1914 こころ Kokoro Kokoro
私の個人主義 Watakushi no Kojin Shugi My Individualism A famous speech
1915 道草 Michi Kusa Grass on the Wayside
硝子戸の中 Garasu Do no Uchi Inside My Glass Doors English translation, 2002
1916 明暗 Mei An Light and Darkness, a novel Unfinished