Natsume Soseki

Modern Japan's "national writer," author of I Am a Cat and Kokoro.

Life

English literature scholar

Natsume Soseki was born in Edo and studied English literature at Tokyo Imperial University. In 1900 he went to Britain as a student sent by the Ministry of Education, spending two lonely, miserable years in London.

I Am a Cat

On returning to Japan he taught at the university, and in 1905 he published I Am a Cat, which satirized intellectuals and society through the eyes of a cat and made him famous overnight. In 1907 he gave up teaching and joined the Asahi Shimbun as a full-time writer, publishing works such as Botchan, Sanshiro, And Then and Kokoro, which explored the individualism and loneliness of the Japanese amid modernization.

Full-time writer

Many writers, including Akutagawa Ryunosuke, gathered among his disciples. He died of a stomach ulcer in 1916.

Legacy

Natsume Soseki is regarded as one of the founders of modern Japanese literature, and his portrait once appeared on the 1,000-yen banknote.

Major works & achievements

• I Am a Cat
• Botchan
• Sanshiro
• Kokoro

Did you know? The pen name "Soseki" comes from the idiom "rinsing one's mouth with stones and pillowing one's head on a stream," which means being stubborn and refusing to admit defeat.

Key dates

• 1900Went to study in Britain
• 1905Published I Am a Cat
• 1906Published Botchan
• 1907Joined the Asahi Shimbun
• 1914Published Kokoro
• 1916Died