Natsume Sōseki

Natsume Sōseki, originally named Natsume Kinnosuke, lived from 9 February 1867 to 9 December 1916. He worked as a novelist, poet, and scholar, and is widely regarded as a giant of modern Japanese literature—often called the country’s first modern novelist. His stories frequently dealt with being an individual, feeling lonely, and the clash between old Japanese ways and the rapid Western influence during the Meiji period. His most famous books include *I Am a Cat* (1905), *Botchan* (1906), *Sanshirō* (1908), *Kokoro* (1914), and the novel *Light and Dark* (1916), which he left unfinished at his death. Sōseki was born just as the Meiji Restoration began, and his childhood was rough: he was given up for adoption twice. He went to Tokyo Imperial University and became a scholar of English literature. In 1900, the Japanese government sent him to study in London, where he spent two miserable years dealing with poverty, racial alienation, and a severe nervous breakdown. After returning to Japan, he took over Lafcadio Hearn’s position as a lecturer in English literature at Tokyo Imperial University. He shot to fame in 1905 with his satirical novel *I Am a Cat*. This success pushed him to write prolifically, and in 1907 he quit his university job to write full-time for the *Asahi Shimbun* newspaper—a move that marked the birth of the professional artist in modern Japan. For the rest of his life, Sōseki published about one novel each year, along with poetry and literary criticism. His writing is known for its psychological depth, a mix of humor and pessimism, and a focus on the human ego. He suffered from severe stomach ulcers and recurring mental illness, including paranoid delusions, which deeply affected his work and personal life. He died from complications of his stomach condition in 1916 at age 49, leaving *Light and Dark* unfinished. His influence on Japanese literature is huge, and he remains one of the country’s most loved and widely read authors. His portrait was on the 1,000-yen banknote from 1984 to 2004. **Early life**

Natsume Kinnosuke was born on 9 February 1867 in Edo (now Tokyo), the youngest of eight children. His father, Naokatsu, held the hereditary job of *nanushi* (neighborhood magistrate), a prestigious and well-paid administrative post. But Sōseki was born on the eve of the Meiji Restoration, a time of social upheaval that wiped out his father’s position and hurt the family’s finances. His parents, aged fifty-one and forty-one when he was born, were embarrassed to have a child so late and saw him as an unwanted burden. Soon after birth, he was put up for adoption. His first foster parents were a couple who bought and sold used goods; Sōseki later wrote that they would leave him alone in a basket at a nighttime bazaar. He was quickly returned to his family after one of his sisters found him and brought him home. In 1870, at age four, he was adopted again by a childless couple, Shiobara Shōnosuke and his wife Yasu. The Shiobaras raised him to believe they were his real parents. At age six, he got smallpox, which left permanent scars on his nose and cheeks—a disfigurement that fed a lifelong sense of self-contempt. Sōseki lived with the Shiobaras until he was nine. That ended when his foster father, Shiobara, took a mistress, causing domestic trouble that led Shiobara to leave the house. In 1876, Sōseki’s biological father, Naokatsu, took him back after learning Shiobara planned to put the boy to work in a restaurant. Back in the Natsume household, he was told his parents were actually his grandparents. He eventually found out the truth when a maid whispered it to him one night as he lay in bed. He later said his main feeling wasn’t betrayal but happiness at the maid’s kindness. For years, his biological father and adoptive father fought over him. Shiobara had legally registered Sōseki as his heir, making it hard for Naokatsu to fully reclaim him, and Sōseki’s legal status wasn’t settled until he was well into early adulthood. Both men likely saw the smart young Sōseki as an investment for their own futures. In 1888, when Sōseki was twenty-one, a formal deal was struck. Naokatsu paid Shiobara 240 yen as compensation for “seven years of care and education,” and Kinnosuke was officially re-registered as Naokatsu’s fourth son. The trauma of these years left a lasting mark on Sōseki, feeding the misanthropy and sense of alienation that run through his writing. **Education and early career**

Sōseki’s education took a winding path. After showing early academic brilliance in primary school, he entered Tokyo Metropolitan First Middle School in 1879. As a youth, his ambitions shifted; he thought about making a name for himself through Chinese literature, then considered becoming an architect. He disliked the focus on English and, in 1881, dropped out without telling his parents to enroll in Nishō Gakusha, a traditional academy focused on classical Chinese. Though this went against the modernizing trends of the Meiji era, it gave him a deep command of classical Chinese that later enriched his writing. Realizing English was necessary for getting ahead, he left the academy and joined an English cram school in 1883. In 1884, at age seventeen, Sōseki passed the entrance exams for the First Special Higher School (a feeder school for Tokyo Imperial University), where classes were taught almost entirely in English. Though he often claimed to have been a lazy student, he graduated at the top of his class.