I Am a Cat by Soseki Natsume (1905 to 1906, translated by Graene Wilson)

My Prior Posts on Natsume Soseki

Translation of authorial names will often see him as "Natsume Soseki") 

I Am a Cat is the fourth novel by Natsume Soseki (1868 to 1912) I have had the great pleasure of reading.  Previously I have read and posted on (there is some background information on him in my prior posts) three of his novels, Botchan, Kokoro, and Kusamakura.  

I Am a Cat is among the longest of pre-WW Two Japanese novels.  As soon as I saw the title I knew this was a book I needed to read.  Told by an unnamed household cat in a middle class family, the father is a teacher, it is a gentle to harsh at times satire of Meiji era (1868 to 1912) Japanese life. At times the manner of the prose reminded me of that of Saki.

All literary cats are a bit haughty and the cat in this work does not disappoint.  He is an "inside/outside cat" and it was a lot of fun to see his interaction with rougher ferral cats, in a subtle way cat society mimics human, and pampered pets.  We learn a lot about academic life and politics from listening in on the conversation of the humans.  We see how the family functions and the role of servants in daily life. Teachers are portrayed in a quite negative way.

I Am a Cat was first published in serial format and each chapter can function as a stand alone story.

The cat knows other cats in his neighborhood are much better taken care of than he.  He is hurt by the fact that his humans don't even bother to name him.  In the indifferent way the cat is treated I think the author is making a comment about the indifference of the affluent in Japan to the average person. The cat does not much like humans and he is quick to point out their flaws.  Much of the novel is devoted to cultural conflicts over the increasing westerization of Japan and the social issues this brings to the country.

I Am a Cat is must reading for all those into the Japanese novel. It is funny, clever, wise and will give you a glimpse into a fascinsting period in Japanese history.  

Published by Tuttle Publishing, the premier publishers of Japanese literature, you can get more information on the book HERE

Mel u

Botchan by Natsume Soseki 夏目 漱石

Botchan by Natsume Soseki (1906, translated by Yasotaro Morri)

The Reading  Life Japanese Literature Project

Botchan by Natsume Soseki (1867 to 1916-Tokyo) is one of the most read of all Japanese novels.    It is pretty much required reading in the later years of elementary school in Japan.   Soseki is one of the first "modern" Japanese novelists.   He is most famous for his I Am a Cat, Kokoro and Botchan.    I have previously posted on Kokoro and a beautiful work about the nature of art set just after the Russian Japanese War,   Kusamakura.


Botchan is considered to be based on the author's experience as an elementary school teacher.     The title character has just obtained his college degree, in physics, and has secured a good job teaching at a private elementary school.   The novel is kind of a combination of a coming of age story and a morality play with different characters representing different outlooks on the rapid changes overtaking Japan in the early years of the 20th century.


Botchan himself stands for conservative traditional values of old school Japan.   One of his fellow teachers represents the Bushido tradition of total loyalty to the Emperor and one at another extreme is meant to be an intellectual very influenced by the current thinking in Europe.   Another teacher is seen just as a follower of any popular trend.   One of the teachers is a very brooding deeply thoughtful person.   


The story also uses the bad behavior of the students to symbolize the falling away of young people from traditional Confucian values of extreme respect for teachers.   


There was one really interesting and very funny scene where the teachers went to a party with Geisha girls.   In this scene we see the teachers are really just young men without a lot of knowledge of the ways of the world.


There is a lot in this short novel.    It gives us a good look at the life of an elementary school teacher and lets us see how people from small towns felt about Tokyo.


You can down load it  for free in Kindle or other formats from Manybooks.


In their preface to the translation Yasotaro Morri says that there is a lot of slang used in Botchan.  Morri in this 1919 translation uses a lot of American slang from this era and it kind of seems out of place now but it is not a big matter, just a minor feature.   


Most into Japanese literature probably read Botchan a long time ago.   If you went to school in Japan you probably read this book in elementary school.   


I hope to read more of his work in 2012.   I admit to loving the title of I Am a Cat.




Mel u

Koroko by Natsume Soseki 夏目 漱石

Koroko by Natsume Soseki (1914, translated 1957 by Edwin McCellan)

 Natsume Soseki (1867 to 1916-Tokyo) is one of Japan's most revered writers (there is some background information in my post on his beautiful 1906 work devoted to a consideration of the nature of art, Kusamakura).    His most blogged about book is I am a Cat.   He is considered the first "modern" Japanese novelist of import.

I found Koroko to be a very intense, rich work.   The plot is fairly simple.   A young man from a decent well off family is almost out of the university.    He meets an older man, maybe late thirties to mid forties and develops a friendship with him that borders on obsession.    He ends up moving in with the man and his wife.   The man has the means from some unknown source to live modestly without working.    He is very reticent to tell much about himself and his past.    The younger man develops a kind of relationship with the wife (nothing improper) and she seems to be the first non-family female he really knows.   He gets a letter from his mother saying to come home as his father is very sick.

While he is home we learn something about the young man who now happily has his degree.   His parents want him to get a job, maybe as teacher, like his brother.   The father has his good and his bad days.   The student gets a letter, a very long one, from his friend.   His mother hopes the man will help him secure a job.

The relationship of the two men is not easy to understand.   I found no elements of eroticism in their relationship but the younger man is totally obsessed with his friend and now his wife.

In the letter the older man tells his friend that when he was about his age an uncle cheated him out of most of his inheritance, leaving him only enough to live modestly.   While a university student, he moves in a rooming house and falls in love with the owner's daughter.   In the mean time he persuades his friend to move in also to help with expenses.   K falls in love with the daughter also.   K confess his love to his friend who is very shocked and extremely jealous.   He proposes marriage to the daughter and shortly after this K kills himself.   (In the start of the letter the man, who the younger man calls "Sensai", tells him that when he gets this letter he will have killed himself).  Now twenty or so years latter the Emperor of Japan dies bringing to end the Menji era.   This prompts the very publicly followed suicide of a famous Japanese general in atonement a military blunder  in the Russian-Japanese War, even though the Japanese won the war.     The younger man is Sensi's only friend and he wants him to understand why he feels he must take his own life.

Koroko is a very interesting work.   It has a lot to tell us about transition of Japan from a traditional society to a western based one.   It is a subtle exploration of the relationship between men and women.   The wife is a near mystery.   It is about family ties and guilt.   Koroko is about the terrible price people can pay if they never develop their own identity.

I will next read Soseki's Botchan, required reading in most Japanese High Schools.

Mel u