Natsume Soseki
1867-1916
Natsume Soseki’s career begins with a few youthful satires, expressing his growing contempt for society through humour (I Am A Cat, Bocchan), before settling into a more serious tone in his later works. Most of his novels are relatively short, focussing on a particular character in a particular situation, and ending as soon as this situation resolves itself.
Incorporating both Classical Chinese and English literary traditions, Natsume ends up developing a complex worldview that he goes on to express in whatever way makes sense at the time. Throughout what ends up being a fairly short career, Natsume returns to a few prominent themes — particularly relating to the individual’s place in society — from a variety of angles, even composing a loose trilogy following a “certain kind of guy in a relatively analogous situation” at various periods in his life. (Sanshiro, And Then, The Gate.)
Generally considered the most influential novelist in Japanese literature, an exploration of his works will provide ample reward for anyone curious about the artistic output of 20th century Japan. But of course, Natsume Soseki is also just one man, with an idiosyncratic worldview and style that has never been replicated.
Overall, I would describe Natsume Soseki as a contemplative writer. We are primarily dealing with the thoughts of our main characters, and are often provided with tangents on a variety of subjects that occur to him, both philosophical and not. Because of this, the books feel very welcoming — as if Natsume is trying to share something with you about how he experiences the world. As I attempt to describe the books below, remember that the plot is often secondary, and the most important moments are those that don’t come to mind when writing a summary; instead, they pop into your head while wandering in the world, as you think, “Natsume Soseki wrote about this…”
My Top Five
- The Gate (1910)
- I Am A Cat (1905)
- And Then (1909)
- Kusamakura (1906)
- Bocchan (1905)
WORKS
I Am A Cat (1905)
吾輩は猫である
Soseki’s first work of fiction, published serially in a literary journal. It follows a cat who gets taken in by the family of an eccentric middle-school teacher, from which position he observes and ridicules the attitudes of the Japanese bourgeois and artistic classes.
The novel doesn’t have much of a plot or structure. While the beginning centres on cat-centric adventures, eventually our focus shifts to the teacher himself, and the ridiculous companions who regularly drop by his house. This means that the cat-narrator gimmick doesn’t wear out its welcome; you might even forget he’s a cat at all. In fact, about two-thirds of the way through the story, he apologizes for how human he’s become.
It could be argued that, at almost 500 pages, the book is a little long for one in which there’s no overarching plot, but the charm and humour will keep one entertained. There are plenty of memorable events and hilarious scenes, including a particular favourite of mine in which a man goes to a Western restaurant and insists on ordering ‘moat-bells.’
This was, at one point, my favourite novel.
Bocchan (1906)
坊ちゃん
Following on from I Am A Cat, Bocchan is another primarily comedic novel, this one about a schoolteacher who accepts a job in the boonies. Like its predecessor, its primary focus is ridiculing a collection of bizarre characters. Not quite as rich in its satire as I Am A Cat, Bocchan is still an entertaining adventure.
Kusamakura (1906)
草枕
Soseki’s first attempt at a more serious novel, about a young painter who travels into the mountains in order to experience the world without being a person. Similar to the above, the plot takes a backseat to observations, this time about the nature of art. He also meets a g-g-g-girl. While the novel is less comic than its predecessors, there is a particular chapter, in which the main character gets a haircut, that may as well have been ripped straight from Bocchan.
We are introduced to a variety of motifs/themes that will recur near-constantly in Natsume’s works. Most notable is the idea that society warps individuals — most of his protagonists are attempting to escape society in some way or another, and must suffer the consequences. In Kusamakura, the main character believes that by travelling into the mountains, he can elude human society altogether, but instead finds that people in the mountains are, in the end, also people.
The Heredity of Taste (1906)
趣味の遺傳
A man finds himself in the middle of a military homecoming celebration, and it reminds him of a friend he had who died. At his friend’s grave, he sees a g-g-g-g-girl, and attempts to find out who she is. It’s known as Natsume’s “anti-war novel,” but this quality is perhaps overstated due to the context of the hyper-militarism of Japan at the time. A modern reader would probably find the anti-war sentiment fairly mild.
As with many of Natsume’s books, it’s hard to understand the book merely by speaking of its plot. The majority of the novel is caught up in thoughts, as the main character reckons with the early death of his friend, and the enduring life of the mother he left behind. The most notable segments are those in which the protagonist attempts to imagine the final moments of his friend’s life, as his company storms a Russian fortress.
The 210th Day (1907)
二百十日
A short novella about two young boys who decide to hike up a mountain. Along the way, one of them talks about being the son of a tofu seller, and opines about the disparity between rich and poor. The book is structurally interesting, as the story is primarily told through dialogue. It feels as if the book is an attempt to re-integrate the comic dialogue of his first two novels with the more serious style Natsume was developing in Kusamakura and The Heredity of Taste.
Apparently it’s based on his experiences taking a hike — this being the case, I’d probably put it near the top of the “my experiences taking a hike” genre.
The Miner (1908)
坑夫
Something of an anti-novel about a young man who grows weary of his life in Tokyo due to circumstances left somewhat unclear but somehow relating to two women, and decides to start walking North in the hopes of meeting his death. On the way, he comes across a procurer who recruits him to work at a mine, where we read of his first few days in this new environment. The "anti-novel" framing saves Natsume from having to conceive of much of a plot or an ending, which leaves the book feeling pretty meandering, even by his standards.
A concept that seems to be constantly hinted at in Natsume's fiction is the disparity between romantic love, and the forms of love accepted by society. His main characters always seem to fall in love with the wrong person, and this gets them in trouble. Only in And Then have we seen this rendered explicitly; elsewhere, such as in this novel, it happens before the novel even begins. This ties into the broader theme of alienation from society, which is often a prerequisite for being the protagonist in a Natsume Soseki novel.
And Then (1909)
それから
And Then follows Daisuke, a young scion of a wealthy family, who has developed an attitude towards life that precludes work, effort, or respectability. His only passion is the arts, which he doesn’t actually seem all that passionate about. His father is an old-fashioned samurai-businessman-sort, typical of the Meiji era, and his elder brother walks in those same footsteps.
Daisuke, after doing nothing for quite a long while, becomes involved with the wife of an old school friend, and has to decide what he wants to do about that. Of course, what he really wants to do is nothing at all, but that soon stops being an option.
The novel maintains a slow pace, with a plot that doesn’t move forward as much as it circles around its object, wary of taking a step closer. But the characterization is strong, and the main character’s mixture of confidence and uncertainty is interesting.
The Gate (1910)
門
Spiritually following And Then, The Gate acts as a sort of “what if” scenario for a possible outcome of that story, albeit following an entirely different character. Isolated amid the suburbs of Tokyo, Sosuke and his wife have little but love and routine, having been cast aside from their families due to the circumstances of their past. Constantly strapped for money, they learn to make do with little, unable to imagine a better life.
Over the course of the novel, Sosuke takes responsibility for his younger brother, befriends his rich landlord who lives up the hill, and is forced to reckon somewhat with a figure from his past. All this leads Sosuke to retreat to a monastery in the mountains, where a Zen master asks him to ponder an incomprehensible koan. But Sosuke has no predilection toward the philosophical, and his struggle to face his own self (or lack of self) mirrors his inability to reckon with his own past, failing time and time again to face the shadows of his previous actions.
The Gate is perhaps Soseki’s most successful novel, a somber and meditative study of a seemingly simple but psychologically deep individual, emphasizing both his joys and his sorrows.
UNREAD
- Nowaki (1907)
- The Poppy (1907)
- Ten Nights of Dreams (1908)
- Sanshiro (1908)
- To the Spring Equinox and Beyond (1912)
- The Wayfarer (1912)
- Kokoro (1914) *I technically read this about 10 years ago but have basically no memory of doing so.
- Grass on the Wayside (1915)
- Light and Dark (1916) (unfinished)