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Soseki’s Works

Title Bibliographic Information Synopsis
Wagahai wa neko de aru (I Am a Cat) First Appearance: January 1905 to August 1906 in the magazine Hototogisu
First Edition: First volume in October 1905, second volume in November 1906, and third volume in May 1907; all jointly published by Okura Shoten and Hattori Shoten		 The narrator of this novel is an unnamed cat who refers to himself using the archaic and grandiose personal pronoun wagahai. He lives in the household of a middle-school English teacher named Kushami (“Mr. Sneaze” in the English version).
The novel satirically portrays the family members and the human society in which they live. Many of the characters are thought to have been modeled after Soseki’s real-life acquaintances.
Botchan First Appearance: April 1906 in the magazine Hototogisu
First Edition: Included in the collection Uzurakago, January 1907; Shunyodo		 This humorous novel follows a mathematics teacher who has just graduated from the Tokyo College of Science (now the Tokyo University of Science) and takes a post at a middle school in Shikoku. While coming into conflict with both his mischievous students and devious fellow teachers due to his reckless and quarrelsome personality, he eventually finds his own path. The novel is based on Soseki’s own experiences as a schoolteacher in Matsuyama.
Gubijinso First Appearance: June to October of 1907 in the Tokyo Asahi Shimbun and Osaka Asahi Shimbun newspapers
First Edition: January 1908; Shunyodo		 This is the first novel that Soseki wrote after joining the Asahi Shimbun Company. It centers on the protagonist Ono, who is torn between Sayoko, the daughter of his mentor, and the wealthy and beautiful but vain Fujio. The personal dramas surrounding these three and other acquaintances such as Fujio’s non-blood-related elder brother Kono and former fiancé Munechika are told in flowery prose.
Sanshiro First Appearance: September to December of 1908 in the Tokyo Asahi Shimbun and Osaka Asahi Shimbun newspapers
First Edition: May 1909; Shunyodo		 Sanshiro is the coming-of-age tale of a young man named Ogawa Sanshiro who has just graduated from the Fifth Higher Middle School in Kumamoto and moved to Tokyo to attend Tokyo Imperial University. Sanshiro grows through his interactions with characters such as the mysterious young woman Satomi Mineko and Professor Hirota, a teacher at the First Higher Middle School. At the same time, the novel is also a dispassionate examination of Japanese society following the Russo-Japanese War through the eyes of a naive country-born youth.
Sorekara (And Then) First Appearance: June to October of 1909 in the Tokyo Asahi Shimbun and Osaka Asahi Shimbun newspapers
First Edition: January 1910; Shunyodo		 The highly educated but unemployed Nagai Daisuke leads an idle life financially supported by his wealthy father and brother. When he meets Michiyo, the wife of his old friend Hiraoka, Daisuke is torn between his feelings for Michiyo and his obligations to Hiraoka and his own father, who urges Daisuke to enter an arranged marriage. In the end, Daisuke chooses Michiyo and resolves to give up his life of privilege.
Mon (The Gate) First Appearance: March to June of 1910 in the Tokyo Asahi Shimbun and Osaka Asahi Shimbun newspapers
First Edition: January 1911; Shunyodo		 Nonaka Sosuke lives a quiet life in a house at the bottom of a cliff with his wife Oyone, with whom he eloped after betraying his former friend Yasui. He gets to know his landlord Sakai, who lives on top of the cliff. However, when Sosuke hears that Sakai’s brother has become acquainted with Yasui and will bring him for a visit, Sosuke panics and knocks on the gate of a Zen monastery, hoping to become an apprentice. This work is considered to form a trilogy together with Sanshiro and Sorekara (And Then).
Higan sugi made (To the Spring Equinox and Beyond) First Appearance: January to April of 1912 in the Tokyo Asahi Shimbun and Osaka Asahi Shimbun newspapers
First Edition: September 1912; Shunyodo		 According to Soseki, this work is woven together from several short stories. The complex human drama centers on Sunaga Ichizo’s conflicted feelings regarding his marriage to his cousin Taguchi Chiyoko, combined with other episodes such as the death of the infant daughter of Sunaga and Chiyoko’s uncle Matsumoto, as well as the perspective of Tagawa Keitaro, the listener of all of these stories. Matsumoto’s story is based on the death of Soseki’s daughter Hinako.
Kokoro First Appearance: April to August of 1914 in the Tokyo Asahi Shimbun and Osaka Asahi Shimbun newspapers
First Edition: September 1914, Iwanami Shoten, Publishers; book cover designed by Soseki himself		 The nameless first-person narrator meets an older man on a beach in Kamakura, referred to as Sensei (meaning “mentor”). Sensei feels guilt over the suicide of his former close friend “K,” whom he betrayed in order to win his wife. He later sends the narrator a letter confessing to his egotistical actions and takes his own life. Like Higan sugi made (To the Spring Equinox and Beyond) before it, the work is written in three parts: “Sensei and I,” “My Parents and I,” and “Sensei and His Testament.”
Michikusa (Grass on the Wayside) First Appearance: June to September of 1915 in the Tokyo Asahi Shimbun and Osaka Asahi Shimbun newspapers
First Edition: October 1915; Iwanami Shoten, Publishers		 This work is considered to be Soseki’s only autobiographical novel. It is an account of one year of events that occurred between when Soseki returned from his studies in Great Britain to take up a post as a lecturer at Tokyo Imperial University (now the University of Tokyo) and when he began writing Wagahai wa neko de aru (I Am a Cat). Soseki’s money troubles with his adoptive father Shiobara Masanosuke and his marital discord are portrayed from the perspective of a fictional protagonist named Kenzo.
Meian (Light and Dark) First Appearance: May to December of 1916 in the Tokyo Asahi Shimbun and Osaka Asahi Shimbun newspapers; left unfinished at 118 installments due to Soseki’s death
First Edition: January 1917; Iwanami Shoten, Publishers		 Although Tsuda Yoshio and his wife, Onobu, are outwardly a harmonious newlywed couple, Tsuda still has feelings for his former lover Kiyoko. When an acquaintance, Mrs. Yoshikawa, informs him of Kiyoko’s whereabouts, he goes to meet her. The ulterior motives of various characters, including the mistrusting Onobu and Tsuda’s younger sister Ohide, who despises Onobu for her extravagant spending, come together to form a single human drama.
Garasudo no uchi (Inside My Glass Doors) First Appearance: January to February of 1915 in the Tokyo Asahi Shimbun and Osaka Asahi Shimbun newspapers
First Edition: March 1915; Iwanami Shoten, Publishers; book cover designed by Soseki himself		 Although Soseki did not often speak of his private affairs, he was frequently housebound in order to recuperate from illness, which afforded him the opportunity to write this collection of vignettes. The study of Soseki’s house in the Waseda-Minamicho neighborhood and its surroundings serve as the main setting for recollections of his interactions with visitors and flashbacks to the past.
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