Natsume Sōseki
| Natsume Sōseki | |
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Sōseki in 1912
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| Native name | 夏目 金之助 |
| Born | Natsume Kinnosuke (夏目 金之助?) 9 February 1867 Tokyo, Empire of Japan |
| Died | 9 December 1916 (aged 49) Tokyo, Empire of Japan |
| Occupation | Writer |
| Genre | novels, short stories, poetry |
| Notable works | Kokoro, Botchan, I Am a Cat |
Natsume Sōseki (夏目 漱石?, February 9, 1867 – December 9, 1916), born Natsume Kinnosuke (夏目 金之助?) was a Japanese novelist. He is best known for his novels Kokoro, Botchan, I Am a Cat and his unfinished work Light and Darkness. He was also a scholar of British literature and composer of haiku, kanshi, and fairy tales. From 1984 until 2004, his portrait appeared on the front of the Japanese 1000 yen note. In Japan, he is often considered the greatest writer in modern Japanese history. He has had a profound effect on almost all important Japanese writers since.
Born in 1867 as Natsume Kinnosuke in the town of Babashita in the Edo region of Ushigome (present Kikui, Shinjuku), Sōseki began his life as an unwanted child, born to his mother late in her life, forty years old and his father then fifty-three. When he was born, he already had five siblings. Having five children and a toddler had created family insecurity and was in some ways a disgrace to the Natsume family. A childless couple, Shiobara Masanosuke and his wife, adopted him in 1868 and raised him until the age of nine, when the couple divorced. He returned to his family and was welcomed by his mother although regarded as a nuisance by his father. His mother died when he was fourteen, and his two eldest brothers died in 1887, intensifying his sense of insecurity.
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