Jūdō founder Kanō Jigorō, who was head of the college, took a liking to Sōseki and entreated him to accept the position. From 1893, he balanced postgraduate activities with instruction at a Tokyo teacher’s college.

His pen name derives from sōseki chinryū, the Japanese rendering of a Chinese proverb meaning “stubbornly unwilling to accept defeat.” In an era when many Japanese were abandoning long-established texts to study European languages, Sōseki’s classical Chinese learning was more reminiscent of an intellectual of the Edo period.Įven so, English became another string to his bow, and he learned enough of the language to begin teaching it to others while still a student. He greatly preferred classical Chinese, and had a lifelong love of the nation’s traditional literature. From 1890, he spent three years in the English department at the University of Tokyo.Īt first, Sōseki had hated English. There he met Masaoka Shiki, who would become another key literary figure by modernizing the haiku. At the age of 17, he entered preparatory school for university. The loneliness he experienced during a difficult childhood may have contributed to his later spirit of independence.Īlongside his standard education, he studied the Chinese classics and English at intensive schools. Rather than raise the young Kinnosuke themselves, his parents sent him away to grow up with another couple who were friends of the family. The future writer was the eighth child of Natsume Naokatsu and the sixth with his wife Chie. With the end of the Edo period (1603–1868), Japan would rapidly develop under the new Meiji government. Natsume Kinnosuke was born in the city of Edo in 1867, the year before it was renamed Tokyo. Study and GrowthĪ monument in Kikuichō, Shinjuku, marks Natsume Sōseki’s birthplace.

Having lived through a period when the country stepped onto the international stage, Sōseki could be described as Japan’s first writer of world literature. Despite their age, his works remain fresh and full of life for contemporary readers, and they have been translated into many languages. He passed away shortly before his fiftieth birthday, on Decemlast year Japan marked the centenary of his death. Japan’s leading modern novelist Natsume Sōseki was born 150 years ago, on February 9, 1867.

Kokoro soseki natsume