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About the Author

Sōseki Natsume, one of Japan’s most distinguished writers, was born in Tokyo in 1867. At an early age he studied the Chinese classics, and later intended to become an architect. He changed his mind, however, and entered Tokyo Imperial University to take up literature. In 1900 he was sent to London by the Japanese Ministry of Education to study English literature for two years. He was not happy there, and returned to Japan in 1903 to succeed Lafcadio Hearn as lecturer in English at his old university. After publishing his first novel, I Am a Cat in 1905, Sōseki immediately rose to fame, and shortly after this he resigned his teaching post to become literary editor of the Asahi Shimbun. Many more novels followed, and Sōseki became the leading voice of the age, often ruthlessly criticizing his contemporary society for its acceptance of westernization. He died in 1916 at the age of forty-nine.