Natsume Soseki

Natsume Soseki

By Seina Suzuki

Soseki was the sixth child and unwanted child by his family, because he was born to his mother late in her life. His mother was 40 years old and father was 53 years old. In 1868, he was sent to childless couple named Shiobara Masanosuke and his wife. However they divorced, therefore Soseki returned to his real family when he was 9 years old. His family welcomed him, except for his father. He didn’t have good relationship with his father. His mother died when he was 14 years old.

He attended the First Tokyo Middle school (now Hibiya High School) and while studying there, he became enamored with Chinese literature and he dreamed of becoming a writer. When he told his old brother about his dream, his family strongly disagreed. In 1884, he entered Tokyo Imperial University to become an architect. While at university, he study Chinese classics and also started to learn English.

In 1887, he met Masaoka Shiki and Soseki was affected by him. Soseki started singing his poems. He entered English Literature department in 1890. In 1895, he began teaching at Matsuyama Middle School and he also published haiku and Chinese poetry in that time.

In 1900, he was sent to study in Great Britain as “Japan’s first Japanese English literary scholar” by the Japanese government. However he didn’t get his scholarship by government. He studied instead at University College London. Before he arrived in London, it took 2 months to get there. He visited many museums in London. He studied a lot of English and he came to have a fundamental question, “What is Literature?” He wrote “Theory of Literature.” He had to go back to Japan before he could accomplish his ambitions. He didn’t enjoy his life in London however he learned some things and wrote “Theory of Literature”.

Soseki’s literary career started in 1903. He published his haiku in some magazines. He won public admiration when he published “I Am a Cat”. His first major work was that novel. “I am a Cat” was written from the viewpoint of a cat and Soseki also a cat. The owner of the pet Mr. Kushami is a self-ironic portrait of the writer. He succeeded and published many novels like Botchan, Tower of London in 1905, and Kusamakura in 1906. His post when he wrote at the university got a position with Asahi Shimbun and he began writing full time. In that time, Naturalist literature was popular; however he was part of Yoyu-function.

In 1907, he decided to resign from his teaching job and entered a newspaper company The Asahi Shimbun as a novelist. He wrote a lot of stories in newspaper. His novels were full of humor at the first, but later changed to focus on depth of human psychology, isolation and egoism, and analyzed the contradictions in Japanese society.

He died of stomach ulcer on December 9th 1916. He was writing “Light and Darkness”, however he didn’t finish writing about it. His novels are still widely read and his major works of fiction have been translated into English.


Reference list

-Natsume Soseki, the greatest Novelist in Modern Japan
http://www.ucl.ac.uk/library/exhibitions/soseki-pamphlet.pdf#search='natsume+soseki'

-Wikipedia Natsume Soseki

-Natsume Soseki
http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/natsume.htm

Natsume Soseki

Natsume Soseki

By Haruka Takenawa

I would like to present Natsume Soseki’s growth, experience and the effect on his character, and his contribution to society at that time and this time. The reason why I chose him is I was interested in his literature when I was junior high school student. I would like to know his personal side. I think his personal background and experience must have influenced his works, and have given a lot of ideas to his works. That is why I chose him.

Firstly, I will mention three main points about Soseki’s growth: his family, study in Japan, and study in Britain.

Soseki was born in 1867. At that time, Japan was full of upheavals. The Meiji Restoration [Editor’s note: defeat of the Shogunate and restoration of rule by the Emperor] had happened, and Sakamoto Ryouma and Nakaoka Tarou had been killed by Bakufu [the ruling Shogunate]. His father was a village head, so Soseki’s parents’ home was rich. His mother had many children. He had four brothers and three sisters. However, Soseki was not a wanted child. His parents’ treatment of him was terrible. His parents had never treated him as their child. Soseki was born in rich family, but not an amiable family. He was sent to a merchant family by his father as soon as his birth. Unfortunately, his adoptive father and his father had a trouble, so he went back to his house where he was born. The trouble between them continued until Soseki entered ASAHI press when he was 40 years old. That experience, and his domestic environment, gave him the ideas for “Michikusa”.

He acquired culture at ten different schools and Universities. He changed his learning place many times. He mainly learned English literature, because he was really interested in English. When he entered Nishyougakushya University, he learned ethics, the western sense of beauty, and Edo’s sensitivity. He had an outstanding brain, so he was the head of his class in all subjects especially English. He became an honor student of Tokyo University. As a result of his outstanding work, he got job from his professor to translate “Houjyouki” (Kamakura era masterpiece). He met Masaoka Shiki at Tokyo University, and they became best friends and haiku companions.

Governor let Soseki to study in Britain. Soseki was inspired by European thoughts, education, and their way of living. Also he could concentrate on his study of English literature. “MY INDIVIDUALISM” was inspired by their ideas of “Freedom”. British freedom meant one had to have the responsibility to be free. However, Japanese freedom was totally different. Through his studying in British, he found that an ideal English teacher is a person who has studied overseas then mastered English as a communication tool. Furthermore, he got many ideas about educational style.

Secondly, I will mention his experiences and the essential points to build up his character. I will focus on the literature, his friends, and illness.

He loved not only writing but also reading. He is famous for loving foreigner’s literature. When he went abroad to Britain, he read Jane Austen’s literature with pleasure. It is not an exaggeration to say that his literature was influenced by her works.

He had a lot of precious friends. When he was 22 years old he met Masaoka Shiki at Tokyo University. Soseki was impressed by Masaoka’s haiku and became his haiku companion. They improved each other so that Masaoka is necessary for Soseki’s works and Masaoka was too. Thanks to Shiki’s friend Takahama kyoshi (literature companion), Soseki became a full time writer. Soseki had neurasthenia (a nervous breakdown) so Kyoshi believed that if Soseki focused on his works, he would be able to forget his uneasiness. He had not only literature companions; he also had friends for boat race, and gymnastics. He was really interested in boat race and good at gymnastics. He had good relationships with them.

Soseki had really poor health. He had serious illnesses more than fifteen times. He suffered from illness from only three years old to when he died. His one-year-old fifth daughter died when he was forty-four years old. Her cause of death was uncertain, because of that, Soseki decided to ask his doctor to examine his body by dissection after his death.

Lastly, I will mention his contribution to Japanese society at that time and this time, focusing on his works, his educational style, and his famous speech at Gakushuuin University.

He produced about 37 masterpieces in his short life. His works give his reader great impact even now. “KOKORO” is really meaningful novel because depending on the age, each generation feel differently. That is why it is difficult to understand his works. Its psychological description lets reader consider deeply. The time background is of course different from these days, however the characteristics are related to us. ASAHI press took a survey to ask audience which writer is the best writer in Japan of the past thousand years. The most popular writer was Natsume Soseki.

Soseki taught mainly English at about six different Universities, junior and high schools such as Meiji, Tokyo, and Waseda University. Soseki carefully considered not only his teaching style but also how to build up students’ character. His teaching style was incredible, because he had already found that to unite grammar and communication is the best way to learn English. That idea had just started in 2013. I was so surprised to know that. His educational style was very practical, because he thought English was a tool to communicate, not for study.

“MY INDIVIDUALISM” was a speech given by Soseki at Gakushuuin University. When I read it, I was so impressed, because he noticed that Japanese society’s fault even though it was 1914. His quote must have influenced many people even now. He told the students three main topics. Firstly, “If you want to be free, you have to accept other’s freedom.” Secondly, “If you want to use your right, you have to have its duty.” Lastly, “If you want to use your power of money, you have to think about its responsibility.” After he left such meaningful speech, he passed away when he was 49 years old.

In conclusion, I have mentioned Soseki’s growth, experiences, and contribution. I noticed that he had a lot of setbacks. Through his difficulties, he made lots of outstanding and meaningful works. I think his setbacks are his works’ essential items. He had to have serious illness. However, the motivation to produce his works was his limited life I think. In learning about his background, Soseki taught me fortitude. Even we have difficulties, we should overcome our difficulties and should not give up.


References

Kimura. (1998). Natsume Soseki’s history. Retrieved May 5, 1998, from Biglobe web site: http://www2a.biglobe.ne.jp/~kimura/senpu.html

Koki, K. (2000). Natsume Soseki as English teacher. Japan: Shintyosya Institution Press.

Mizuho, I. (2004). Soseki in London. Japan: Seibundou Institution Press.

Soseki, N. (1978). MY INDIVISUARISUM. Japan: Kodansha Institution Press.

Natsume Soseki

By Satoshi Ui

Natsume Soseki

Soseki (known as Soseki Natsume) was born on 9th of February 1867 and passed away on the 9th of December 1916 at the age of 49. His real name was Kinnosuke (金之助). He had several jobs. He worked as a novelist, critic, and an English literature. But he is mainly famous for writing many novels. For example, his debut work “I am a Cat” (吾輩は猫である) in 1905, then “Botchan” (坊ちゃん) and “Londontou” (倫敦塔), became popular in magazines. He is also famous for being printed on the old 1000 yen bill. During his life, he did not just have a happy life but also was affected by mental problems and many diseases that gave hard time on his jobs.

Firstly, since he was an infant he had tough times in his childhood. His father had a very strong political power, but his family had many problems. For example, his grandpa was addicted to alcoholic and their wealth was slipping into danger but, later on his father strived to fix the problem. Also, his mother bore many children, and Soseki was born as an unwanted child and sent as an adopted child to many houses. However eventually he settled back to his parents’ home. This is when he began to be sick through his life, which had a big effect on his novels that he is going to write in the future.

Secondly, in his university life, he met a man name Masaoka Shiki (14th of October 1867 - 19th of September 1902, at the age of 34) who was famous for writing Chinese poems and haiku. This is when he started to study the haiku and changed his name to “Soseki”. Actually, this name was one of Shiki's pen names but he yield it to Soseki. This is when Shiki guided Soseki into the literature world. After graduating from Teikoku University, as a career he went to some schools and taught as a professor. Later on he decided to go study abroad in the U.K. After 2 years of studying abroad, he wrote his famous maiden work “I am a Cat” in the magazine named “Hototogisu”. After this good literature fame, he announced the new novels one after another.

Thirdly, in the year of 1907, he resigned teaching at school and found a job at the Asahi Newspaper (朝日新聞). From this moment, Soseki began to step toward to a professional author. In the same year of June he started to serialize the work “Gubizinsou” (虞美人草) on part of the newspaper. But, while writing the story he started suffering from “stomach ulcer”. This is when his nightmare began. After he finished the series of “Gubizinsou”, he worked on several novels until the last one “Meian” (明暗), that he could not complete. But, during his job he suffered from the stomach ulcer and nervous breakdown several times. He also broke some promises with the doctor about his health, for example, eating the jam that he loved or a lot of oily food.

Finally, I will explain about his great legacy and conclusion. Because of his complicated childhood, his thoughts and ideas were different from others. This happened to change his life. In the literature congress, he is famous for creating original Japanese words. For example, the word for “various” in Japanese came out “iroiro” (色々) which means “many colors” if you translate it directly. Also, this is very famous as a romantic sentences that he translated “I love you” into “Tsukiga-kireidesune” (月が綺麗ですね), which means that you are beautiful as a moon. By these examples, you can see that he is a talented person for creating new words. He is also famous for writing himself in his novels. He sometimes described the diseases and the situation that he was in to the readers too. These kinds of techniques are used a lot in the novels that are read in the present day. It makes us have attention and interest in a lot of books.


Reference

Wikipedia-Natume Soseki

https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%A4%8F%E7%9B%AE%E6%BC%B1%E7%9F%B3

Retrieved on 23/07/2013

Natsume Soseki

By Saki Rokuhara

Natsume Soseki on the old 1,000 yen note

Natsume Soseki was a famed Japanese novelist of the Meiji Era (1868–1912). He became the portrait on the thousand-yen note in old days. Therefore there would not be anyone who does not know him in Japan. He is best known for his novels Kokoro, Botchan, I Am a Cat, and his unfinished work Light and Darkness. My image of Soseki is that he could speak English well, he had an excellent record and he is the famous writer. However the reality is a little less positive. He grew up in an unhappy environment. I am interested in his life though his surroundings. That is why this essay focuses on three points of his life: his background, people who were around him and what he has contributed to modern society.

First, Soseki was born Natsume Kinosuke in Edo in 1867. However he had a difficult childhood. He was sixth child and unwanted by his family. His mother was 40 years old and his father was 53 so it was late in their lives (Books and writers, 2008). He was sent to live with a childless couple from 1868 to 1877, but they divorced so he returned to his home. His mother died when he was 14, and his eldest brothers died in 1887. In 1893 he became an English teacher but he was worried about many things, including his disease, and English literature as learned by Japanese. Therefore in 1895 he resigned as teacher in Tokyo and he went to different school in Ehime where he continued teaching.

Second, I will talk about people who were around him. Natsume Soseki and Masaoka Shiki were classmates in their cram school. They met in 1889 and they were influenced by each other. Tohoku University Library (2003) said that “In May 1889 Soseki contributed a critical essay to a collection of Shiki's compositions. It is reasonable to suggest that their parting was foreseeable for them from the outset: it is said that Shiki was diagnosed as being tuberculosis of the lungs during this period and realized he had "only ten years" to live.” That is why I think they formed a close friendship. Shiki taught Haiku to Soseki. They were the same age but Shiki was conceited so he treated Soseki like a younger brother (Hoshimiruhiro, 2010). It was Shiki Masaoka who acted as a middleman for Soseki to become a novelist. However Shiki was already dead when Soseki started writing novels. Shiki died in September 1902 during Soseki's stay in England (Tohoku University Library 2003).

Finally, Soseki published many books and he made speeches. Tohoku University Library (2003) said that “Influenced by Shiki, Soseki composed Chinese poems and haikus. Later, encouraged by Kyoshi Takahama, one of a disciple of Shiki, Soseki published I am a Cat in Hototogisu, a magazine started by Shiki.” Soseki gave a famous speech to students at Gakushuin school in 1914. This speech was called My Individualism. He talked about his experience of growing up in the early Meiji era. He argued that it was important for everybody to find their individual identity, but also to respect other people’s individualism as well. Books and writers (2008) says that “In 'My Individualism', a speech delivered to the students of the Gakushuin, an elite academy, he said: "... a nationalist morality comes out a very poor second when compared with an individualistic morality. Nations have always been most punctilious over the niceties of diplomatic language, but not so with the morality of their actions."

In conclusion, I think Natsume Soseki was probably quite good at communication in the sense of his language skill and understanding of people. However maybe he was a high achiever. That is why he was unhappy in spite of the fact he could speak English by going abroad. Moreover the background of his speech is Japanese who were learning about English literature. Could Japanese understand English literature? If a British judgment was different from one's own judgment as a Japanese person, could you insist on your opinion? (Shirolog, 2007). I think this speech is very important even now.

References 

Books and writers, (2008), Natsume Soseki, Retrieved 20 July 2013, from http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/natsume.htm

Hoshimiruhito, (2010), Shiki to Soseki, Retrieved 25 July 2013, from http://morinnko.cocolog-nifty.com/blog/2010/03/post-caee.html

Shirolog, (2007), My individualism, Retrieved 25 July 2013, from http://blog.hakoniwa.net/archives/404

Tohoku University Library, (2003), Natsume Soseki Library, Retrieved 24 July 2013, from http://www.library.tohoku.ac.jp/collect/soseki/