Soseki Natsume

Natsume Sōseki (real name Natsume Kinnosuke) was an outstanding Japanese writer, one of the founders of modern Japanese literature.

He was born on February 9, 1867, into a poor family of the headman of one of the communities of Edo (modern-day Tokyo). In his youth he received a classical education and was regarded as an expert in ancient Chinese and Japanese classical poetry.

After graduating from the Imperial University of Tokyo with a degree in English literature, Sōseki decided to continue his studies in graduate school.

In 1894, he showed signs of tuberculosis; however, for many years he suffered from another illness — a stomach ulcer.

In the spring of 1895, Sōseki obtained a position as an English teacher on the island of Shikoku. His friends were greatly surprised by Sōseki’s decision to go to this remote corner of Japan, since in effect he was condemning himself to voluntary exile. In June 1896, he married the daughter of a prominent parliamentary figure, but the marriage was unhappy from the very beginning.

In 1900, Natsume Sōseki was sent to England for training (1900–1902), from which he returned a fervent Anglophobe. His stay in England also had a detrimental effect on his health — Sōseki developed signs of a nervous disorder and depression.

From 1903, he held the post of lecturer in English literature at the Imperial University of Tokyo, where he succeeded Lafcadio Hearn.

Strictly speaking, the writer’s creative career began in 1905, when two sharply satirical works appeared from his pen — I Am a Cat, Botchan, and the novel Kusamakura.

Sōseki began his literary career rather late, at the age of thirty-eight. In 1907, he moved to the Asahi newspaper as editor of the literary page, which also greatly surprised his friends, since leaving a university teaching post for work at a newspaper was considered a step down.

The writer’s subsequent work is represented by a trilogy of novels — Sanshirō (1908), And Then (1909), and The Gate (1910) — which portray the image of a