This book is a classic Japanese literature, written by whom many consider as Japan’s leading novelist, Natsume Sōseki.
It was published in 1914, two years after Japan’s Meiji era ended after the death of Emperor Meiji in 1912, which was followed by the accession of his son, Emperor Taishō, who ruled the Taishō era from 1912 until his death in 1926.
The book portrays the transition period in Japanese society from the traditional early Meiji era, to the modernizing later Meiji era, to the Taishō era that was filled with even more modernity and assimilation with the Westernized world. And it is depicted in the story through the relationship between a young student and his mentor (or Sensei), with the student represents the hopeful new Taishō era while the Sensei has more of a Meiji era’s characteristics that is increasingly lost and felt out of place.
Interestingly, Sensei’s character is said to be similar with Sōseki’s own personality and upbringing. Sōseki was born in Edo in 1867, a year before Emperor Meiji took the throne and the Meiji era began (and Edo was renamed into Tokyo). He was educated in the Japanese and Chinese classics and in the Confucian moral code, still far from the Western concepts of individualism and individual rights.
Similarly, Sensei is of a similar age with Sōseki, with his references to the importance of old-fashioned moral education reflects Sōseki’s own preferences. For both Sōseki and Sensei, the Meiji period’s later embrace of Western individualism already triggered inner conflicts that haunted them trough their lives, which was then exacerbated in the Taishō era.
This is what the novel is about, the inner struggle in the transition, the isolation, the generational gap, the moral guilt, and ultimately the human connection. But there’s a twist, a Dostoevsky-esque type of moral story similar like Crime and Punishment.
But the difference is, this novel reveals it at the very last part of the story. Throughout the early parts of the novel the student (as the unnamed narrator of the story) keeps on portraying Sensei as a distant character with a mysterious past, with only glimpses of clues appear every now and then in the middle of their conversations and the student’s conversations with Sensei’s wife. But everything is eventually explained in part 3 by Sensei’s letter to the student, which I will not reveal here because it would become a spoiler for the entire build up.
All in all, the novel’s title “Kokoro” is a perfect reflection of the themes in this story, where it can be translated to “the thinking and feeling hearts.” Because following your logic does not mean a thing, if your action contradicts with what your heart is telling you.
The Meiji Era ended when Emperor Meiji passed away on 30 July 1912. And after the funeral on 13 September 1912, the very next day General Nogi Maresuke and his wife Shizuko committed a ritual suicide (seppuku), practicing a long-banned Samurai tradition to die with their lord. This event sent a shockwave throuhought Japan, and inspired Sōseki to write this novel.
THE CHAOS THEORY 