I’ve been playing The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles recently and, upon encountering a certain character, I paused, staring at his name and thinking to myself “Is this that famous Japanese author I’ve heard about?” A cursory bit of research quickly confirmed my suspicion but I quickly found myself intrigued at his experience and the impact that he’s had on Japanese literature. Therefore, I thought it might be interesting to take a look at Soseki Natsume, a man who’s often considered to be the most important author of the Meiji era.
Soseki Natsume was born in 1867, with his birth name being Kinnosuke Natsume, in a rapidly changing Japan which had only ended its policy of isolation, Sakoku, and was in the process of Westernisation and making contact with global powers. Soseki ended up learning the English language and began working as a teacher at several schools. At this time, Japan’s relations were rapidly growing, which would eventually lead to the signing of the Anglo-Japanese Alliance in 1902, and, in 1900, Soseki was chosen by the Japanese government to study English literature in Britain, making him the first Japanese to do so.
As referenced in The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles, Soseki Natsume’s time in Britain wasn’t a pleasant one. In fact, he stated later on that “The two years I spent in London were the most unpleasant years in my life. Among English gentlemen I lived in misery, like a poor dog that had strayed among a pack of wolves.” He was to originally study at Cambridge but ended up switching to University College London due to the money the Japanese government provided being insufficient. Moving between four different addresses, his mental health deteriorated and he was diagnosed with the now dated neurasthenia due to his paranoia, mood swings and erratic behaviour. Nonetheless, upon his return to Japan, he became a professor of English Literature at the Tokyo Imperial University.
His career as an author truly began in 1905 with the release of his first book “I Am a Cat”, a work that follows a cat who narrates and comments on the ridiculousness of the lives of humans. The success of this satirical work resulted in the rest of his life, that being up to 1916, being devoted to penning books with approximately 17 novels, one of which was unfinished, a short story collection, four essay collections and a memoir. Besides “I Am A Cat”, two other particularly notable novels of his are “Botchan”, a work about a teacher from Tokyo working at a school in Shikoku who’s rather blunt, and “Kokoro”, a story about the friendship between an older and younger man where one of them holds a major secret.
As he was working on “Light and Darkness”, his unfinished work, his physical health was rapidly deteriorating as he suffered from stomach ulcers, hemorrhoids and intestinal catarrh and he passed away in December of 1916. Nonetheless, his body of work has left a great impact on both Japanese literature and popular culture. Numerous popular characters use the archaic pronoun “Wagahai” in reference to the cat from I Am a Cat, his appearance in The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles where his paranoia and mood swings are on full display and how his face adorned the ¥1000 note from 1984 to 2004.
Soseki Natsume’s legacy is fascinating, both with regards to his work and his experience in Britain. Let me know your thoughts on Soseki Natsume, whether you’ve read any of his books, how you first heard about him, whether you were aware of his experience in Britain, if you think his title as most important author of the Meiji era is deserved and any additional information you might have on the topic.
Hopefully you have found this article interesting and informative and, if you wish to seek any of the works I mentioned, don’t hesitate to use amazon.co.uk and amazon.com for all of your needs!