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    Kokoro
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    Kokoro
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    Kokoro
    Ebook262 pages4 hours

    Kokoro

    By Natsume Soseki

    4.5/5

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    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    "Rich in understanding and insight."—The New Yorker
    What is love, and what is friendship? What is the extent of our responsibility to ourselves and to others? Kokoro, signifying "the heart of things," examines these age-old questions in terms of the modern world.
    A trilogy of stories that explores the very essence of loneliness, Kokoro opens with "Sensei and I," in which the narrator recounts his relationship with an intellectual who dwells in isolation but maintains a sophisticated worldview. "My Parents and I" brings the reader into the narrator's family circle, and "Sensei and His Testament" features the eponymous character's explanation of how he came to live a life of solitude.
    Natsume Soseki (1867–1916), perhaps the greatest novelist of the Meiji period, remains one of Japan's most widely read authors. He wrote this novel in 1914, at the peak of his career, and it remains an excellent introduction to modern Japanese literature.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherDover Publications
    Release dateMar 7, 2012
    ISBN9780486122588
    Unavailable
    Kokoro
    Author

    Natsume Soseki

    Natsume Sōseki, seudónimo literario de Natsume Kinnosuke, nació en 1867 cerca de Edo (la actual Tokio). Descendiente de una familia de samuráis venida a menos, fue el menor de seis hermanos. Cuando tenía dos años, sus padres lo entregaron en adopción a uno de sus sirvientes y a su mujer, con quienes viviría hasta los nueve años.

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    Reviews for Kokoro

    4.5/5

    49 ratings23 reviews

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    • 4/5
      Wonderful novel... never read any lit crit of this, but seems like an allegory for the end of the Meiji era in Japan; the death of the original oligarchy that felled the Tokugawa and ruled the country for 40 years or so... translation is minimalist and gorgeous.
    • 5/5
      This novel is blow-me-away kind of gorgeous. It's my first novel by Natsume Soseki who has been considered to be Japan's finest contemporary novelist. I think that most Japanese fiction, in its simplicity of voice is beautiful, but this story has a grace in a class by itself. It's a story about friendship, love, and betrayal. It's strength lies in the last part of the book in which we hear directly from Sensei, a friend of the university student who narrates the beginning of this book, as Sensei reveals how one important decision he makes during his life causes him unending guilt and deep spiritual pain. I sincerely want to delve into more work by this amazing Japanese writer. I can't believe it took me so long to remove this book from my bookshelf and finally read it. What a treasure!
    • 3/5
      It's a good book but so sad too. I didn't love it but I definitely enjoyed the way it's written.
    • 5/5
      This book is hauntingly beautiful. It's a must read. Loved it
    • 5/5
      I found this book when I was searching for books by Ichiyo Higuchi. I started reading and loved it from the first pages. It’s a lesson of japanese elegance, modesty and secrecy, qualities that I’ve always admired in this people, beyond their astonishing sense of honor.
    • 5/5
      A tragedy that grips the reader right from the beginning, it’s somber elegiac mood slowly unwinds a story that leads inexorably to a conclusion that has been signposted nearly from the start. It is set in around Tokyo Japan at the start of the 20th century when Emperor Meiji (1868-1912) was leading a rapid drive to Westernise his semi-feudal country. The effects were keenly felt at the universities and students and teachers had to adapt quickly in rapidly changing times, some could not and Kokoro is the story of two individuals who were out of step with the modern world and found themselves cast adrift, in a world in-between the old and the new. The story is told in the first person by a young student who is studying for his graduation at the University in Tokyo. He has few friends and does not want to return home to the country house for his holidays and goes on vacation to the coast. On a crowded beach he first spies Sensei a middle aged Japanese man in the company of a Westerner. The student is curious and engineers a chance meeting on the beach a few days later when Sensei is on his own. He finds someone who seems to be a kindred spirit in that he also has few friends and has an inner life that is rarely revealed, but who has a wisdom and conversation on issues that particularly appeals to the young student. He assiduously courts Sensei’s company and eventually gets invited to his home after the vacation where he meets Sensei’s wife. He becomes Sensei’s friend and soon discovers that he is his only friend and he gradually becomes aware of a tragic event in Sensei’s earlier life that has shaped his current situation and left him with a melancholia that prevents him from working and from participation in normal life. Sensei is enigmatic and like the student, the reader is almost afraid to find out his terrible secret:Sensei “I do not have the right to expect anything from this world”Sensei “there is guilt in loving” he insists more than once.Sensei “it is not you in particular that I distrust, But the whole of humanity”Sensei "You see, loneliness is the price we have to pay for being born in this modern age, so full of freedom, independence, and our own egotistical selves”The student is called away from Tokyo to attend to his father who is slowly dying of a disease of the liver and he cannot get away to see Sensei. The students own problems take over his thoughts, but he is worried when a telegram arrives from Sensei followed shortly after by a long letter. Sensei has decided to unburden himself to his only friend and he starts by relating how his relations have cheated him out of his inheritance, but there is so much more and slowly the tragedy unfolds.How can a sensitive, intelligent man like Sensei become so embittered and so isolated and the answer to this question goes to the core of the human condition; love, death, honour, friendship, family and betrayal are themes played out against the clash of the old country culture and modern city Westernisation. Above all this is a very human story of people unable to fit into a world in which the ground seems to be shifting away from under them and it is the old values which trap them, but which they cling to nevertheless.Apart from an unforgettable story Soseki takes the reader into the milieu of pre first world war Japan. We glimpse a culture and a tradition that is told to us by an insider in such a way that we are soon immersed in it. Natsume Soseki has been labelled Japan’s first truly modern writer and this book published in 1914 is his masterpiece and enough to see him included in many lists of classic 20th century fiction, however don’t take the critics word for it, explore this mesmerising book yourself. From the first page to the last I was hooked and could not put it down. A five star read.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 3/5
      Soseki's Kokoro explores the theme of the demise of the traditional Japanese way of life, a theme that seems all but omnipresent in Japanese literature of this period. Kokoro, however, seems to adopt a less damning stance with regards to the demise of the old ways than some other works of Japanese fiction. Soseki doesn't use this book to condone the death of traditional Japanese life by any means, but he does not identify it as something to struggle against either, identifying both virtues and flaws in the old ways.

      Dealing with this book out of order, the second half of this book consists of the life story of a character identified only as Sensei, who inherited from his parents the role of a country nobleman, but who was cheated out of this inheritance and gave up the countryside for a life in Tokyo. There he lives with a mother and daughter, slowly falling in love with the latter, and eventually convincing his friend K to move in with him. K also falls in love with the daughter, in direct contradiction to the values that K had previously espoused, and Sensei uses this hypocrisy and K's inability to abandon his old perspective to intentionally inflict pain, while simultaneously swooping in and becoming engaged to the daughter without his friend's knowledge. K commits suicide, and Sensei lives the rest of his life tormented by his role in the matter.

      The first half of the book deals with how an unnamed narrator befriends Sensei, who has lived an idle life with his wife, slowly withdrawing more and more from society and other people as he finds his guilt growing harder and harder to deal with. The narrator, largely oblivious to all of this, sees Sensei as a great man despite his lack of accomplishments and spends a significant period of time trying to get to know him and emulating his lifestyle. Eventually the narrator must return home after graduating from university to take care of his dying father. His father, a provincial who lives in the country, seems to have inflated expectations compared to what the narrator actually believes he can achieve, and as his condition slowly deteriorates the narrator indulges him in several fictions to ease his passing. Just before his father is apparently going to finally die the narrator receives a letter from Sensei detailing his life (as set out above) and claiming that he will have committed suicide by the time the letter arrives. Distraught, the narrator leaves his father on his deathbed to return to Tokyo and find Sensei.

      It seems very difficult to interpret Sensei as anything other than largely symbolic of the transition of Japanese life from the traditional (country nobleman whose hobbies include things like flower arrangement) to the modern (urban living, attendance at a Western style university, associating with a Westerner at the beach). With this in mind, I took the narrator's interaction with Sensei to be a reflection of Soseki's beliefs about his era's attachment to the old ways of life, which were still viewable but fading every day in early 1900s Japan. The narrator feels an innate affinity for Sensei and his more traditional way of life, but Sensei is largely unable to reciprocate. The narrator would even like to emulate Sensei, but with the economic realities of the day it seems unlikely that the narrator would actually be able to carry those ambitions out. Finally, the fate of Sensei raises the question of whether such emulation is desirable at all. Sensei's ties to the past have seemed to give him nothing but trouble, and his inability to let go of it has tormented him. The traditional aspects of his life have not seemed to give him any special strength with which to deal with the modern world.

      This was my interpretation at least, and it makes Kokoro a much more neutral stance towards modernization than I'm used to seeing in Japanese literature. It's of course possible to interpret the book differently, but the narrator's final actions taken for Sensei's sake seem to be strong evidence that an infatuation with the past leads to more harm than good. Ultimately, however, Kokoro provides little concrete information about the ultimate fates of its characters. We never actually find out happens to the narrator's father, or what the fallout is for the narrator's decision to return to Tokyo. We don't even really know what befalls Sensei, we are merely informed by Sensei of what he claims he's going to do if he has the strength for it. Ultimately, the only thing we are left knowing for sure is that the old era is over. An appropriately open ended message for a Japanese book of that time.

      With all that being said, I didn't love this book. Symbolism aside, you had a story about a couple characters that weren't particularly sympathetic dealing with problems of their own design, and dealing with them poorly. As already stated, we don't even find out how it all plays out, the novel ending before any definitive action is reached. The minimalist prose worked for this book, but it rarely had that beauty in sparseness sometimes captured by minimalist writing (though that might be due to the translation). The characters likewise didn't feel particularly distinct, as the narrator and Sensei were the only ones given depth and they read as very, very similar (though that may well have been intentional on Soseki's part given their symbolic roles). This was one of those books that was more fun to analyze than it was to read by a noticeable margin, while great works pull off both. Give this a try if you're interested in pre-WWII Japanese literature.

      A note on the edition Edwin McClellan translated: the minimalist prose he adopts seems appropriate, but I'm not sure how much faith I have in the translation given the note on page 49 describing go as "a kind of checkers." The use of the word "excited" on page 64 and 65 also seems a bit strange to me, and I suspect the connotation of the original word would be different, but I can't read Japanese well enough to take a stab at an independent interpretation. I'm not saying there's a better translation out there, but if you're thinking of picking up a copy you might want to compare a couple editions online before making your choice.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 4/5
      This novel, one of Natsume Soseki’s last and written on the cusp of Japan’s epochal rise to becoming a world power, reflects the author’s preoccupation with conflicting cultural attitudes in the transition from the feudalist Late Tokugawa Shogunate to the capitalist, more modernized Japan it would become during the Meiji Restoration. Of course, this period wasn’t just marked with bureaucratic, political, and military reforms; it also trickled down into the personal lives, families, and friendships, and this intensely personal impact is what Soseki looks at here.“Kokoro” tells the story of a narrator who sees a man walking down a beach one day; he eventually befriends this man who we only come to know as “Sensei.” The development of their relationship and growing friendship forms the first part of the book’s tripartite structure. The narrator repeatedly emphasizes his own naiveté in contrast with the worldliness and cynicism of Sensei. Sensei is a guarded man who is old enough to work but chooses not to (we never get the impression that this is out of laziness), has few close friends, and doesn’t wear his emotions on his sleeve. While the innocent young narrator initially sees Sensei as the stereotypical older wise man, he slowly begins to realize that he has something unique to teach him. When the Emperor dies, his beloved General Nogi commits junshi, ritual suicide after the death of one’s feudal lord or master. Being a man of the old Tokugawa era, this act evokes more of a reaction in the Sensei than it does in the younger narrator – another sign that Soseki is telling the story of a generational and cultural divide. When Sensei sees General Nogi kill himself out of loyalty for the Emperor, he realizes that he doesn’t feel comfortable in this new Meiji dispensation, with the “modern age, so full of freedom, independence, and our own egotistical selves.” The second part, “My Parents and I,” sees the narrator’s father’s health start to decline, which leaves his future as a very recent college graduate very uncertain. He and his brother are both curious about what the will has in store for them, but the recent manner in which General Nogi died brutally underscores the new era’s selfish interest in material things. The last part consists of a very long letter that Sensei wrote to the narrator before he too decides to commit suicide. We learn of his youth, his family, and an episode during his time as a student (that I won’t reveal here) that ties together all the facets of Sensei’s personality and finally completely reveals who he is. Throughout the novel, the prose is spare, sharp, lean, and clear. Even Sensei’s voice, in his extended letter, varies very little stylistically from that of the narrator. This spare quality adds a sense of quiet distance between the reader and the story, which perhaps for more harmonious reflection. The language may just be the product of a particularly good translation, but I found the writing well suited to describing the characters and the Soseki’s themes: human frailty, the inevitability of the culture clash, the unrelenting quality of modernity, and confrontation with one’s troubled youth.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 3/5
      "Kokoro" was confusing, unsatisfying, interesting...to say the least. Why did the student seek out Sensei to begin with? I figured the student was gay and felt a physical attraction; quite possibly, that was the case. But for melancholic Sensei (who married the woman of his dreams), how did he benefit by building and maintaining a relationship with the acolyte whom, ultimately, he deemed to be more intimate and trusting than his wife Ojosan? I didn't get it. The student was no hero. He was naive, deeply flawed, and unbalanced. How else to explain his sudden, rash "Remains of the Day decision" to leave his father's deathbed in order to pursue his obsession with Sensei? Possibly we all can relate to the student's feeling, in some form, of profound personal conflict...but, still, he totally flunked out at a critical moment for himself and his family.Sensei's letter was indeed the most engaging part of "Kokoro", as it provided an interesting and compelling back story for how, and under what circumstances, he arrived at his station in life and adopted his overall piss poor, untrusting attitude about himself and others. As described in the letter, the relationship dynamics between Sensei and "K", his erstwhile student peer and friend, were plenty weird. Yet they also were understandable and, to a certain extent, transcended the specific zeitgeist of early 20C Japanese culture. Ultimately, I won't pretend to understand Sensei and the decisions that he made. I also can't comprehend the relationship between Sensei and the student. If these connections were in some way emblematic of early 20C Japanese mores or culture, I simply didn't get them.

      2 people found this helpful

    • 5/5
      "How can I escape,except through faith,madness or death?"

      Kokoro is an epic melodrama of isolation and self-inflicted guilt. A beautiful heartfelt experience from the exploring friendship between a young graduate student and his mentor(Sensei).Soseki brilliantly unveils an intricate web of egoism,guilt,temptations and loneliness through various anecdotes on Sensei's reclusive living. No wonder Soseki succeeded Lafacdio Hearn as a lecturer in English Literature in the Imperial University(1903).
    • 4/5
      It's a classic revered among the Japanese. Even though it did not disappoint me in any way, I must say that I did not enjoy it as much as I have enjoyed books by Kawabata or Tanizaki. Not to mention Murakami, but he is a different era altogether. Kokoro means heart in Japanese, and it stands for not only the physical heart but also for the metaphorical heart of the matter and the spiritual center of being. In the book, it can be taken to mean all of the above, and some aspects of it can even be reminiscent of the Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe, which gives it still an additional dimension. It also comes from roughly the same historical period as Poe’s work, the time when Japan was in transition- it started to open itself to the West. Soseki studied and lived in England for some period as well, and it’s reflected in the book where typical and traditional Japanese values and behaviours intermingle with the Western stress on the individual. The book starts slowly and progresses at a languid pace until it suddenly develops towards the end and then it gathers great speed and is as unstoppable as a freight train. An interesting read altogether, but I doubt it will ever become my favourite.
    • 2/5
      boring

      9 more words needed before review can be posted
    • 5/5
      [Kokoro] was published in 1914 and, according to the introduction to my edition, is considered “one of Japan’s great modern novels.” In a testimony to the strength of [[Natsume Soseki]]’s writing, I found the book to be a page-turner. Oddly, not much happens in the story and all of the characters are pretty drippy. The book focuses on interpersonal relationships and the responsibilities of friendship. Kokoro has a unusual structure. It is divided into two parts. In the first part the narrator describes his friendship with an older man who he calls “Sensei” or teacher. The narrator also chronicles his own father’s serious illness. The narrator has a distant relationship with his parents; who seem to represent a traditional, more rural Japan. Sensei is urbane, but feels empty. It seems bizarre that anyone would cultivate a teacher/student relationship with Sensei, who never does anything. The second half of the book is a letter from Sensei to the narrator. In the letter he gives the back-story and explains his passivity. I read this book right after reading [Norwegian Wood] and was struck by many similar themes. On the back of the book, (translation by Meredith McKinney). Murakami is quoted as saying “Soseki is the representative modern Japanese novelist, a figure of truly national stature.”Definitely a book that made me think. I would highly recommend it.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 3/5
      Kokoro is a beautifully written story with a deep underlying sadness of a young man who befriends a mysterious mentor with a troubled past, which isn't revealed until after the narrator travel home to care for his dying father. This is a story of relationships and the decisions we make that can forever alter those bonds. This is novel about longing for a past we can't have, even if it causes us so much pain.It's easy to tell that Natsume Soseki was concerned with themes of isolation, especially loneliness resulting from the rapid social changes during the Meiji Period of Japan, when Japan was rapidly adapting technology and the cultural customs of western countries. It's hard for me to relate to, but I think there are some similarities to today with how the internet has changed the dynamics of how people relate to one another. While being more and more connected in every way we are still interfacing with a screen isolated from the outside, creating a new kind of loneliness.There's also a lot to take away from this novel as historic piece of work. One being that no western novel of the same period could ever sustain the kind of avoidance and mystery of the past for so long. By applying to the very traditional Japanese custom of discretion Soseki manages to create an atmosphere of suspense in what amounts to a slow plodding character driven novel. The other is that Meiji Period must have been very hard for much of the older and more traditional Japanese to adjust to. Ever society has a period of immense change in its history, but I get a sense that this was especially traumatic for a society like Japan that had been closed to the outside for long. A very worthwhile look at the affects of the Meiji Period.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      I couldn't put this book down, which is odd, since is has very little plot. The subtle but effective character development really drew me in. There is also a feeling of dread that is felt from the beginning but that gets more and more oppressive and desperate right up to the end. I had to continue reading to find out what happened, but at the same time, deep inside I knew exactly what happened from the start and read on to try to prevent the inevitable. Given the themes of the novel, I assume this was an intentional effect. I also found it amusing that in Part 3, when Sensei was young, I forgot that young Sensei and original narrator were different characters. Again, likely a brilliant ruse by Soseki. I am not familiar enough with Japanese history to appreciate the grander picture of this novel, but on its own, it's still a wonderful read. 4.5 stars
    • 4/5
      Great book. It was such a simple story but I was kept interested as it slowly unfolded as to the reason the Sensei was so withdrawn and untrusting of others. The ending was very thought provoking as well.
    • 4/5
      This seemed to me to be the Japanese Great Gatsby. I enjoyed it a lot.
    • 3/5
      I had to read this for a class a few years ago. Very interesting. A Japanese classic.
    • 5/5
      This book changed my life. It was being discarded by my high school library and I scooped it up to read. As a high schooler who felt separated and apart from my classmates, Sensei's quiet acceptance of the narrator and his distant manner attracted me in a powerful way, and as I read I also began to think of him as my own personal Sensei. When I finished the book I felt as if I had been struck, but was not yet old enough to really understand the immensity of this work.I brought Kokoro with me to Japan when I studied abroad. There I struggled again to find connection and meaning in my life, and during a particularly depressing day I sat down and read Kokoro cover to cover. It has been said that when we read we are searching for ourselves. I found myself in Kokoro. The feelings within the novel, and the way they are expressed, resonate with me in a way that no other book has managed. When I feel sad and alone I think of Sensei, and I am not alone anymore.Kokoro is a much more complex novel than what my gushing might suggest. It isn't melodramatic. It isn't overly emotional. It is restrained and intensely introspective. Kokoro spurred my love of Japanese literature, I think it is a terrible shame that more people aren't exposed to this masterpiece. I look for excuses to suggest it to pretty much everyone I meet, and I would certainly suggest it to anyone who is looking for a book representing the finest fiction that the East has to offer.
    • 5/5
      If you want to understand Japan's cultural, social and ethical transformation during Meiji period, you have to read this book.Oh, and the new translation available at Penguin Press is completely fine.
    • 5/5
      Soseki's "I Am A Cat" seems to get all the attention but this is a far superior work. Perhaps it could be structured better, less arbitrarily, but that's my only (minor) complaint. Both the voice of the narrator and the melancholy surrounding Sensei draw you in to this little world, their private lives. A simple, enthralling tale, very well written (and translated) which shouldn't be missed by anyone interested in Japanese literature.
    • 3/5
      An insight into the mind of a man «of the past» entering Japanese modernity. This intimate book illustrates the clash between two generations of Japanese men (I emphasize on MEN since this book really sets women apart)... This is a highly philosophical book, not in a theorical way, but in it's capacity of finding a way to explain through a simple voice the change that took place with the end of an «obsolete», or traditional, way of thinking the world (in contradiction to the «modern world») in Japan.I think one needs to have at least minimal knowledge of Japanese history and philosophy to appreciate what this novel is about.Worth rereading, since this book is about a lot more than a simple character's story.
    • 5/5
      Japanese writers have this knack of tugging at one’s heartstrings. They expressed deep and honest sentiment without too much fuss. Their honesty is their own subtlety. They can avoid sentimentalism by hiding under its veil. Soseki is one such writer, and in ‘Kokoro’ he has given us an anatomy of loneliness and mortality. The existential pain is muted, as if dampening the piercing cries of a melodrama, only to produce a howling silence. The novel is divided into three parts, all told in the first person point of view. The first two were related by a student, and the last part by Sensei, his newfound friend who in some ways he considered his mentor. The character of Sensei lies at the heart of ‘Kokoro’, which in the foreword the translator Edwin McClellan said a word that means ‘the heart of things.’ The book gave us a portrait of the man Sensei, how he came to be an aloof and detached man that he was and how he came to have such a singularly bleak worldview where men are always suspect and were out to get the better of his fellowmen. It can be said that ‘Kokoro’ is a product of its time, with its reference to the passing Meiji era and to certain famous personalities of the Japanese empire at that time. It is less a eulogy to the past era than a meditation on what it all amounted to. It illuminates some of the customs and norms of Japan (including its depiction of gender relations) at the turn of the 20th century. However, in its modern (existentialist) treatment of the themes of friendship, love, betrayal, and guilt, the book remains as timeless as can be.