Natsume Soseki

Natsume Soseki

By Mihiro Suzuki

If asked "Do you know Natsume Soseki?", every Japanese person would say yes. Soseki was great author at Meiji period, so his works appear in Japanese text books. In addition, Soseki was symbol of Japanese 1,000yen note until 2014, so most Japanese people know him. However, how many people know his background and his studying abroad? This paper will show 3 points: studying abroad, his childhood, and his thinking.

How many people know that Soseki had been abroad to London for studying? He went to London to study when he was 32 years old. However, this trip was not suitable for Soseki, because his character is very sensitive. When he heard that he was to go abroad, he was already married and had a child, and he was teaching at school in Kumamoto. Therefore he hesitated to go aboard. In addition, at that time the Japanese Ministry of Education said that this purpose of studying abroad is research of English, but Soseki’s interest was English literature, so he was not interested in going to London. However, the Ministry of Education said that you are able to grasp more widely if you take this trip, so Soseki decided to go abroad and study. However, his studying abroad was not successful and something unusual. He suffered from neurosis, paranoia, and weak digestion. This is one of Soseki’s stories: he had such deep paranoia. His friend recognized his condition was not good. One day his landlady said to Soseki “You should go on bicycle trip to relax”, but Soseki misunderstood her as wanting to give him pain, so land lady sent to letter to Japan saying “Soseki has gone crazy”.

This was not the first time he experienced a persecution complex. The cause of persecution complex was his childhood, because when he was born, his mother was 41, so his mother felt really sorry and could not bring up him [Editor's note: he was the sixth child]. Therefore Soseki was fostered out very poor family. One day, Soseki’s sister found him in the trash, so she took him back in, but his real father was not welcoming. When he was 10 years old, he was fostered out to another family. This family’s father always gave him whatever he wanted. However, Soseki thought it is not interesting because he cannot see his father always do coaxing. Finally his father cheated, so Soseki was returned to his real family, but also this time, his real father did not welcome Soseki. Therefore, Soseki did not open mind to his real father until his father died. He was starving for love.

However, if he had not experienced, he would not have completed his principles. After he returned to Japan, he lectured at university. At that time he said that “I became stronger, because I got the word; it is “EGOTISM”.” This word was understood by everyone to mean that I am OK, I only feel OK. However, Soseki said this egotism meant to respect other people and also respect oneself, and love my freedom and also respect other people’s freedom. He did not like London, However he learned about freedom of western culture and individualism. Soseki said that he learned that no matter how many times people say this work is wonderful, unless I think it is good, it is not good in my opinion.

After such painful experiences, finally everything is his treasure and his foundation of his thinking. He was not interested in going to London, but he learned western people's thinking, for example egotism. This thinking did not exist in Japan. Therefore, Soseki got strong impression from this. Finally, his studying abroad was successful.


References

夏目漱石 - ＮＰＯ法人 国際留学生協会／向学新聞 http://www.ifsa.jp/index.php?kiji-sekai-natume.htm (2013/1/26)