Soseki Natsume 夏目漱石(1867-1916)
Born in the eve of Meiji and lived in Meiji and died in Taisho 5.
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Soseki loved making Haiku and Tanka.
Soseki wrote more than 2500 Haiku in his life.
Soseki Natusme 夏目漱石
すみれほどな 小さき人に 生まれたし
(Soseki) 1897
秋の山
南を向いて
寺二つ
(Soseki) 1895
若葉して
手のひらほどの 山の寺
(Soseki) 18973
From a Haiku poet to a great writer
Soseki wrote more than 2500 Haiku in his life.
Soseki Natusme 夏目漱石
すみれほど、小さき人に 生まれたし (Soseki)
1897
A little violet, I wish I were born like you
(Translated by Koji)
秋の山 南を向いて 寺二つ (Soseki) 1895
An autumn mountain, looking to the south,
two little temples in my eyes (Translated by Koji)
若葉して 手のひらほどの 山の寺 (Soseki) 1897
Shining young leaves, a mountain temple,
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in my palm
(Translated by Koji)
Group Discussion and Presentation
Question 1: Who is Soseki Natsume? What is he?
Question 2: What is the writer’s intention in “Kokoro”?
(Key Words and the theme of the novel)
Question 3: What is the charm of the work, “Kokoro”?
(Characters, Organization and plot)
Question 4: What is the nature of K and his conviction?
Question 5: What is the nature of Sensei, his view of life?
Question 6: What are the views of Sensei’s romantic love?
Question 7: What kind of force made K commit suicide?
(What is a “True Way” for K?)
Question 8: What made Sensei leave this world in peace?
(What is Spirit of Meiji for Sensei and Soseki?)
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Group Discussion and Presentation
Question 9: What did you learn from Kokoro (criticism)?
(The Power of Confession) (The power of Jealousy)
Question 10: Soseki and Shakespeare; Historical Backgrounds
Question 11: What is Dramatic Irony in “Kokoro” and
Shakespearean works?
Question12: What is today’s significance of Soseki’s
Kokoro?
Question 13: Continue the story after Sensei’s death?
Your Mid-term essay: My Criticism on Soseki’s “Kokoro”
A4 size at least 2 pages and send it to Koji as an attached file
on line by March 31.
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Grouping for Discussion
• Group A: Bryan, Maxime, Jessica, David,
Joshua, Emily
• Group B: John Paul, Ameria, Ka Rhim,
Tim, Hwisun, Vincent
• Group C: Alexandra, Andrew, Angela,
Kyle, Ji Soo, Yuki
• Group D: Jerome, Anna, Richard, Faiza,
Aurora, Patrick
• Group E: Asim, Alana, Caroline, Kai,
Samuel, Kumi
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Soseki’s lodging house in Matsuyama
and his own house in Tokyo
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Soseki was sent to Univ. of London by Japanese
Government scholarship from 1900-1902 in order to bring
back the advantages of modernization in England. However,
he witnessed and learned the loneliness of modernization as
a price for freedom, independence and individualism, which
affected his works, especially “Kokoro.”.
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Water painting by Soseki
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Soseki studied at University of London (1900-1902)
Sōseki's lodgings in Clapham, South London
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姜尚中 Kan San Ju discusses Soseki in his book 『悩む力』.
Kan San Ju, a Korean, brought up in Japan and became Prof. of Tokyo
Univ. Kan is the most respectful intellectual in Japan. He is familiar with
Said, Soseki and Weber. His latest and sensational book “Nayamu
Chikara” discusses the greatness of Soseki in comparison with Max
Weber in terms of human inner agony and the value of worrying in life.
Kan says, “I love Soseki by nature. I am from
Kumamoto and there are many historical traces of
Soseki in Kumamoto. I am a fan of Soseki ‘s
works as he used to teach English at my high
school in Kumamoto.
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Works of Soseki
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Year
1905
1906
1907
1908
1909
1910
1912
1914
1915
1915
1916
Japanese title
Sōseki's major works
English title
吾輩は猫であるWagahai wa Neko dearuI Am a Cat
倫敦塔Rondon TōThe Tower of London薤露行Kairo-kōKairo-kō
坊っちゃんBotchanBotchan草枕KusamakuraThe Three-Cornered
World (lit. The Grass Pillow)latest translation uses Japanese title
趣味の遺伝Shumi no IdenThe Heredity of Taste, 二百十日
Nihyaku-tōkaThe 210th Day
虞美人草GubijinsōThe Poppy
坑夫KōfuThe Miner夢十夜Yume Jū-yaTen Nights of Dreams
三四郎 SanshirōSanshiro
それからSorekaraAnd Then, a novel
門MonThe Gate 思ひ出す事などOmoidasu Koto nado
彼岸過迄Higan Sugi MadeTo the Spring Equinox and Beyond
行人KōjinThe Wayfarer
こころKokoroKokoro One of the Masterpieces. (Q) WHY
私の個人主義Watakushi no Kojin ShugiMy
Individualism A famous speech
道草Michi KusaGrass on the Wayside硝子戸の中Garasu Do no
UchiInside My Glass Doors English translation, 2002
明暗Mei AnLight and Darkness, a novel
Unfinished and died.
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“Kokoro” represented in Movies. (Q)Why did he
visit a grave of K, his best male friend every month?
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“Kokoro” represented in Movies
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“Kokoro” represented in Movies
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“Kokoro” in Manga and Animation
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The novel, “Kokoro” has always appeared in high school
modern Japanese textbooks. “Kokoro” has been read and
loved by almost all Japanese people for 98 years. (Q) Why?
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(Q) What are the key words of this famous novel, “Kokoro”?
• Kokoro, True way (精進）, Spiritual Aspiration
• Individualism and Confucianism
• Freedom and independence in Modernization and
Filial piety in Confucianism
• Guilt (Egoism) and Self-punishment (Suicide)
• Spiritual aspiration (True Way) and Reality
• Friendship and misanthropy, Divine punishment
• Fatal Romantic love triangle
• The power of love and jealousy
• Dramatic irony and self-analysis
• Loneliness in the modern world
• Aloofness, isolation from worldly society
• Trust and distrust, despair and revenge
• The heart of Meiji in Japan
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• Money and its influence on human nature.
主題 What are the themes of “Kokoro”?
① What is human heart こころ?
Human weakness and
human destiny in which we cannot live without human
relationships, including love and friendship.
②The Testament is not only for Watshi but also for all the
people (readers) at that time as universal lesson in life
and a warning for modernization. (Kokoro has gone
beyond time and space since since 1914.
③ Friendship and a string of compassion between
Watshi and Sensei based on trust and respect beyond age
and value systems. Sensei is a man in Meiji. Watshi is a new
generation living in Taisho era which has more freedom and
independence influenced by modernization.
④ Watashi deserves Sensei’s Testament to get.
Watshi got material life from his parents and got mental and
spiritual life from Sensei.
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主題 What are the themes of “Kokoro”?
① The psychological conflict between individualism and
Confucianism.
• (Sensei’s inner conflict between his Individualism and his collectivism
influenced by Confucianism and traditional Japan in Meiji era) His
individualism was influenced by his education at Tokyo Univ.
Westernization and Modernization.
• ② Guilt in Romantic Love Triangle and Self-punishment
③ The impossibility of romantic love and fragility
of friendship involved in jealousy and egoism.
• ④ Timeless psychological analysis of one man’s alienation
from society in Meiji era influenced by Westernization and
modernization. “Soseki’s intention” (Loneliness in modern world.)
• ⑤ Soseki expresses 無常観 in human hearts through the
changing attitudes of humans.
• 無常観 (Nothing is immortal and perfect and everything is
transit and changeable)
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• Ex. The attitude of the uncle, K and Sensei himself.
(Q) What is the charm 魅力of the novel
“Kokoro” ?
• What are the prerequisite of great fiction?
1 Novel= novelty 2, romance involved in Hero and heroin,
3, The power of confession. Ex. ??
The power of confession echoes from person to
person throughout the story.
K’s confession of agonized love for Ojosan.
Sensei’s inner confession of his passionate love
for Ojosan
Sensei’s Confession as a Testament as a
Monologue and the final dialogue with Watashi.
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① (Q) What is the charm 魅力of the novel “Kokoro” ?
• (Q) How many characters and personal names
are there in Kokoro? (Q) Why are there the
first person and second person often in the story?
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
① The narrator ＝ I (私 Watashi)
Do (Watashi) I represent the readers in Chapter III?
② Sensei ＝ the protagonist = Soseki himself ?
③ K＝ Sensei’s best friend with lofty mind:
the dark shadow of Sensei’s life
④ Ojaosan（お嬢さん） honorable daughter
(Q)Why was she named 静?
Manifestation of traditional but modern woman in Meiji.
“ What also impressed me was that fact that though her
ways were not those of an old-fashioned Japanese woman,
she had not succumbed (yield) to the then prevailing
fashion of using “modern” words. (p.37)
• ⑤ Okusan（奥さん）= traditional Japanese woman,
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wife of Soldier (Samurai)
② (Q) What is the charm of the Organization in “Kokoro” ?
私 =private person, personal hidden secret against public 公
• ①The narrator ＝ I (私 Watashi) = What Sensei used to
be as an innocent young man with sincerity. 昔の無垢な先生
• ②Sensei (The protagonist)
• ③ K who used to be an ideal of Sesei became his enemy.
• The life story of three different men are interwoven in the narrative of
“Kokoro” These three characters experienced their chosen
individualism. Sensei said, “ My own past, which made me what I am,
is a part of human experience. (p.247)
•
(Q) What are the individualism of Sensei, K and I?
ORGANIZATION: Soseki’s inner dialog in terms of monolog (His
testament).
小説の最初の1行目 “I always called him “sensei.” I
shall therefore refer to him simply as “Sensei”, not by his real name.
(p1) This story is a dialog between Watashi, ( I ) and Sensei from
the very beginning to the end until Sensei left this world.
これは私が先生に出逢って、先生が死ぬまで私と先生のダイアローグ。 26
ORGANIZATION 構成
Chapter 1
Sensei and I (p1-80) the encounter and friendship
with Sensei
Chapter 2
My parents and I (p.81-124) Family
Chapter 3
Sensei and His Testament (p.125-248)
As the book is narrated in the first person I,
“Watashi” the reader feels immediately included in
and participant of the story that unfold.
The story engulfs human agony between friendship
and romantic love. (these are human truth in life)27
The story shows moral guilt and divine punishment
③(Q) What is the charm of the “Kokoro” as a novel
based on Soseki’s intention ? (作者の意図）
①Appellation:The effect of appellation in the main
character
Kokoro: there is no real name except “Shizu” 静
which came from 静子、the wife of General Nogi
who followed his husband to the grave.
K is the initial of Kokoro. ???? Sensei’s dark
shadow
Sensei used “私” when he told his past to young
“私”
Sensei told his inner and hidden world in his
Testament as “私” . This is Kokoro itself and the
theme and title of the story. This is the depth of
this novel and the charm of the organization and
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the flow of the story.
(Q) What is the charm of the “Kokoro” as a novel
based on Soseki’s intention ? (作者の意図）
② Soseki succeeded the best dialogue between
Sensei and I by using Sensei’s monologue.
(A profound monologue enlivens the dialogue.)
③ Soseki’s method of appellation came from Jorge
Eliot. (ex. Mr. Fox )
Mr. Kaneda 金田 and his daughter Tomiko 富子
in “I am a Cat”
Kiyo, 清 Bochan’s best nurse in “Bochan”
④ 先生は「私」になり、先生の純粋無垢な昔のような 大学
生の「私」に「あなた」と語りかける。一人称、二人称の自問
自答。これは漱石の禅宗の問答の影響。 The effect of
the dialog between the first person and the second
person based on Zen Buddhism which had an
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influence on Soseki.
(Q) What is the nature of Sensei? 先生の人格
A man capable of love, or I should say rather a man who was by
nature incapable of not loving; but a man who could not
(p.12)
wholeheartedly accept the love of another –such a one was Sensei.
• Aloofness, silence, Unapproachable person, misanthropy,
• Not sociable but had a strong passion for love
“Love affair is a kind of violent passion and later it will be a regret.”
• Solitary way and alienation from society, pessimism
• “It is not you in particular that I distrust, but the whole of humanity.
I can hardly trust others. I do not even trust myself.” suspicious
after his uncle’s deception
(p.130)
• “ This nature of mine led me not only to suspect the motives of
individual persons but to doubt even the integrity of all mankind.
• “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.” (P. 30) (Sensei is critical of modern age)
• “Money. Give gentlemen money, and he will soon turn into a
“rogue”
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(Q) What does Sensei think about money?
• When a man dies suddenly, his estate
causes more trouble than anything else.
•
(P.60)
• Under normal conditions, everybody is more
or less good, or at least, ordinary. But tempt
them, and they may suddenly change. That
is what is so frightening about me. One
must always be on one’s guard.” (p.61)
• “Money, ofcourse. Give a gentleman money,
and he will soon turn into a rogue.” (p.64)31
Sensei and His Testament ② 親友 Ｋ (p.125-248)
(Q)What kind of person is K? How do you describe the
personality of K?
Okusan said htat K was an unapproachable sort of person.
(p.178)
Having grown up under the influence of Buddhist
doctrines, he seemed to regard respect for material
comfort as some kind of immorality.(p.176)
Indeed, he seemed at times to think that mistreatment of
the body was necessary for the glorification of the soul.
(p.176)
K used to say, “Anyone who has no spiritual aspirations is
an idiot.” 精神的に向上心のない者は馬鹿だ。”
This words has been echoed between K and Sensei.
Consequently this word made K to decide his last action
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as the final blow by Sensei.
Sensei and His Testament ② Ｋ (p.125-248)
• K and I were friends from the time we were children p.166
• K and I entered the same faculty of Tokyo Univ.
• K decided to go against his foster father’s wishes
(becoming a medical doctor) and to follow his own
inclinations. (p.170) Circumstances had so far made me
sympathize with K; but now I was determined to stand by K,
whether he was right or wrong. (p.171)
• I became a monster of jealousy and got sick and K became
humanized after K moved into.
• K was expelled from his biological father’s house 勘当
• K used to say,” What was important , he said , was that he
should become a strong person through the exercise of
will-power. (p.173)
• Sensei persuaded him to live with him in the same house.
• Okusan said that I would later regret having brought such
a
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person into the house. (P. 174) (Prediction of tragedy)
Plots of disinheritance K
• K was the second son of a Buddhist priest of Jodo
Shinshu.（浄土真宗）
• K was an adopted son to become a doctor in the doctor’s
family. But he used his money sent by the adopted family
in order to study religion and philosophy at Tokyo Univ. to
pursue “True Way.” He believed in that “Anyone who has
no spiritual aspiration is idiot.”
• His biological father punished him by barring him. (expulsion)
• This later expulsion by hi adoptive father and biological
father intensified K’s distrust of , disillusionment with, and
contempt for the world and all humanity.
• K was expelled from the family and no financial security.
• K was also shocked by the fact that even his biological
father cut his relationships and Snesei felt K was more
hurtful. Deceit and disinheritance breed both sympathy34and
distrust.
(Q) What are the views of Sensei’s romantic love?
• In all the world I know only one woman. No woman but my
wife move me as a woman. And my wife regards me as the
only man for her. From this point of view, we should be the
happiest of couples. (p.21)
• Do you know that there is guilt also in loving? (p.26)
• “The friendship that you sought in me is in reality a preparation for the
love that you will seek in a woman.”(p.27)
• “--that true love is not so far removed from religious faith.
Whenever I saw Ojosan’s face, I felt that I had myself
become beautiful. Whenever I thought of her, I felt a new
sense of dignity welling up inside me. If this
incomprehensible thing that we call love can either bring
out the sacred in man or, in its lowest form, merely excite
one’s bodily passions, then surely my love was of the
highest kind. I am made of flesh too. But my eyes which
gazed at her, and my mind which held thoughts of her, 35
were innocent of bodily desire. (p.154) 肉を越える神聖な恋
Gender Romantic love Triangles
Sensei warmly welcomed K into his lodging house in order to humanize,
socialize K and restore his human trust which both of them lost in their
family drama. However, serious discord occurred when both Sensei and
K fell in love with Ojosan. Imbroglio came about when the irrational
jealousy haunted Sensei and he became a green monster like Othello.
Sensei tried to destroy K’s hope and human restoration in order to win
the love of Ojosan.
静 （Shizu＝Ojosan)
先生 Sensei
Ｋ
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Gender Romantic love Triangles
in the Novel of Natsume Soseki
Sorekara (And Then, 1909)
Michiyo
Hiraoka
Daisuke
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Gender Romantic love Triangles
in the Novel of Natsume Soseki
Mon (Gate, 1910)
Oyone
Yasui
Sosuke
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Gender Romantic love Triangles
in the Novel of Natsume Soseki
Kojin ‘The Wayfarer, 1913
Nao
Ichiro
Jiro
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(Q) What are similarities between Sensei and K?
①
②
③
•
•
•
•
Both are from the same country, Nigata Prefecture, Japan Sea area
Both went to the same secondary school and University of Tokyo
Sensei and K had Family Drama and traumatic disinheritance
Sensei: Traumatic disinheritance which brought him distrust of men.
Personal integrity and family pride were endangered and threatened
Mistreatment by his uncles and relatives.
K: K was totally expelled by his adoptive and biological fathers,
financially, socially and institutionally .
• Disillusioned by his own family, Sensei is drawn to and stands by his
similarly disillusioned friend, K.
④ Both were brought up in ethical context, especially K was the second
son of the 浄土真宗 priest family. “I was born an ethical creature and I
was brought up to be an ethical man.” (p. 128)
⑤ Both fell in love with Ojosan
⑥ Both died on his own will.
• The only difference was that Sensei was loved by his parents before
they died of typhoid fever almost at the same time when Sensei was 18
years old before going to Tokyo.
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Shizu (静), Ojosan’s entity and Verbal Power
(Q) Is “Kokoro” a romantic love story as a pretext for male-male
intimacy?
(Q) Is this a story about men’s courtship of Ojosan and friendship with
each other ended tragically narrated by a young man (Watakushi)?
(Q) Was she just a Sensei’s beautiful but constantly infantilized wife?
This characterization derives from the simple fact that there are two male
narｒators, Watakushi and Sensei, and no self-characterization by Shizu.
Some literary critics said Shizu (静） is just quiet, peaceful and still just
like her own name, which was named after by Soseki.
Soseki was aware of the name of 静子, the wife of Genral Nogi who
followed him after his death following Meiji Emperor.
Koji’s veiw of Shizu:
Shizu’s verbal implication proved that she seemed to know Sensei’s
agony, his strong will to die and almost everything, except K’s
confession of love for her to Sensei. When Sensei said that the spirit of
the Meiji era ended with the Emperor’s death and Sensei and others were
left behind to live as anachronisms, Shizu suggestged, “ Well then,
junshi, is the solution to your problem.( p.245) (Junshi, 殉死 means41
following one’s lord to the grave)
(Q)What is the spirit of Meiji? 明治の精神?
Rectitude, honesty and loyalty, especially
national , social and family loyalty.
Bushido is based on the harmony between Zen Buddhism
禅仏教and Shintoism 神道(loyalty, respect for ancestors
and filial piety) and Confucianism儒教
Ｒｅｃｔｉｔｕｄｅ 義 （ぎ） Ｒｅｓｐｅｃｔ 尊敬（そんけい）
Ｃｏｕｒａｇｅ勇 ゆう Ｂｅｎｅｖｏｌeｎｃｅ 仁 （じん）
Honor 名誉 （めいよ） Honesty 誠 （まこと）
Loyalty 忠（ちゅう） Politeness 礼 （れい）
Benevolence is man’s mind and Rectitude is his path.
Indeed, neither Shakespeare nor the Old Testament itself contains an
adequate rendering of Ko (孝）, our conception of filial piety, and yet in
such conflicts, Bushido never wavered in its choice of loyalty.
（Nitobe, 1900)
Loyalty includes the duty of loyalty to nation state as well as filial
piety to each parents. The sprit of Meiji is national, social and family
loyalty and filial piety based on Bushido and Confucianism.
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(Q) What is “True Way”? (Spiritual Purification)
Enlightenment and purification in Buddhism
Nothingness is seen not as a state of non-existence as opposed to existence
but as an absolute, transcending the opposition of existence and noneexistence, or as an ideal and absolute human state identical to religious
enlightenment (Satori) 悟り
To eliminate all human desire and reach the stage of enlightenment, it is
necessary to realize that all is empty, transient and mutable.
Worldly Passion and desires lead human beings into delusion, suffering and
anger. The way to emancipate ourselves from the bond of worldly passion and
desires.
1. We can feel peace of mind only if our mind can get rid of limitless worldly
passion and desires. The causes of delusion and suffering are rooted in the
mind’s desires for what we do not have and attachments to possessiveness
and materialism.
People should learn endurance: they should learn to endure the discomforts of heat and
cold, hunger and thirst. They should learn to be patient when receiving abuse and scorn.
People should learn to see and to avoid all danger. We should not make friends with evil
men. (The teaching of Buddha 1996)
You can thin k of “True way” in terms of K’s pet theory;” Anyone who has no spiritual
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aspiration is an idiot.)
The power of Confession ①
• K confessed to Sensei his love for Ojosan at the cost of
their friendship. 友情の危機を犠牲にしてまで、恋のために
告白。
• (Q) Why did K confess his love for Ojosan to Sensei?
• 1. K’s honesty, loyalty and trust with Sensei.
• 2 To prevent the loss of friendship
• 3 examining their friendship
• K might feel or assume Sensei’s display of jealousy is
simply a response to K’s shift of affection from their
male friendship to a romantic attachment. Ｋは先生に対
するＫの友情が女性への愛でなくなることへの嫉妬と理解して
いたかも知れない。Ｋは先生を信頼していた。
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The power of Confession ②
• (Q) Sensei did not confess his love for the same
woman when K confessed his love. Why?
• (Q) Why did Sensei hid his feeling and thereby
betraying his friendship with K?
• 1. Sensei’s inferiority to K
• 2 Sensei’s fear that K might ridicule or despise him.
• 3. Not to test K but actually to destroy his rival K.
• (I confess to you that what I was trying to do was for
more cruel than mere revenge. I wanted to destroy
whatever hope there might have been in his love for
Ojosan. (p.214)
• 4. Sensei angered that K chose woman rather than friendship by
confessing his love for Ojosan. This goest against K’s conviction
that “ Anyone who has no spiritual aspiration is an idiot.”
• And K seemed to abandon his claims to “The True Way” of
spirituality and thus to betray his own moral self.
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The Power of Confession without confession ③
(Q) Sensei did not tell K his love for Ojoansa. Why?
I told myself that I should be honest with K, and tell him that I
too had fallen in love with Ojosan. (p.205)
I thought I could hear a voice whispering into my ear:” You ‘ll
never get rid of him…”Perhaps I was beginning to think of
him as a kind of devil. Once, I even had the feeling that he
would haunt me for the rest of my life.” (p.207) 一生呪う
He needs kind words, as dry land needs rain. I believe I was
born with a compassionate heart. But I was not my usual
self then. (p.213) 先生は嫉妬のためにいつもの先生でなかった。
Sensei could not open the sliding door which divided
Sensei’s room and K’s room. The door represents the wall
of human weakness, not only physically but also mentally.
Soseki made most of the power of confession and confession
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without confession throughout the story, Kokoro.
第一部 ① Sensei and I
(p1-80)
• (Q) Why did Sensei attract me more than professors at
Tokyo Univ? My irresistible desire to become closer to
Sensei comes from his loneliness and unapproachable
quality.
• I feel a certain pride and happiness in the fact that my
intuitive fondness for Sensei was later shown to have not
been in vain. A man capable of love, or I should say rather
a man who was by nature incapable of not loving; but a
man who could not wholeheartedly accept the love of
another-such a one was Sensei. (p.12)
• “I can live with my loneliness, quietly.” (p.15)
• “Divine punishment.” Sensei answered, (p.17)
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② Sensei and I
(p1-80)
• I should never have noticed him (sensei) had he not been accompanied
by a Westerner. (P.3) (The sign of Westernization) 西洋人と一緒
• His attitude seemed somewhat unsociable. He was always aloof, …he
seemed totally indifferent to his surroundings. (P.5) 孤独で孤高な人
• The sea stretched, wide and blue, all around us, and there seemed to
be no one near us. P6. ( I could enter Sensei’s world distant from the
seashore) “That was the beginning of our friendship.” (p.6) 友情
• It was then that I began to call him “Sensei.” (p.6) 先生と呼ぶこと
• I would perhaps find in him those things that I looked for. (P. 8)
• 先生の孤独な人格の中に自分を引き付け、自分が求めていたものがある。
• I behaved quite so simply towards others. I did not understand then
why it was that I should behave thus towards Sensei only. But now ,
when Sensei is dead, I am beginning to understand. It was not that
Sense dislike me at first. His curt and cold ways were not designed to
express his dislike to me, but they were meant rather as a warning to
me that I would not want him as a friend. It was because he despise
himself that he refused to accept openheartedly the intimacy of others.
I feel great pity for him. (P.8)
48
•
先生が死んだ今、私は先生の人を避ける孤独が理解できる。
③ Sensei and I (Friendship?) (p1-80)
• It was Sensei’s custom to take flowers to a certain grave in the
cemetery at Zoushigaya (p.9) (every month to K’s grave)
• P. 68 is the concluding part of the first chapter which leads us to
chapter 2 and especially the last chapter, “Sensei’s Testament.”
• (Q) Why did Sensei reconfirm his friendship with me as follows?
• Sensei’s face was pale. “ I wonder if you are being really
sincere, “ he said, “Because of what happened to me, I
have come to doubt everybody. In truth I should like to
have one friend that I can truly trst. I wonder if you can be
that friend. Are you really sincere? (p.63)
• “I have been true to you, Sensei.” I said, “unless my whole
life has been a lie.” (p.63)
• This conversation was proved in the last chapter p. 128.
• For Watashi I, his father is a biological father and Sensei
49
became his spiritual father in life.
Sensei and I (Friendship?) (p 128)
• In truth, if there had not been such a person as you, my
past would never have become known, even indirectly , to
anyone. To you alone, then, among the millions of
Japanese, I wish to tell my past. For you are sincere; and
because once you said in all sincerity that you wished to
learn from life itself. (P. 128)
• Now, I myself am about to cut open my own heart, and
drench your face with my blood. And I shall be satisfied it,
when my heart stops beating, a new life lodges itself in
your breast. (p. 129)
• (Q) What does this sentence reminds you of ?
50
第２部 My parents and I (p.81-124)
• I (Watakushi) and my parents.
• Watakushi’s father’s serious illness and the
good relationships with his father.
• Suddenly Watakushi got a very sick letters from
Sensei, which shocked Watakushi.
• “By the time this letter reaches you. I shall
probably have left his world—I shall in all
likelihood be dead.” (p.122)
51
第３部 Sensei and His Testament
① 初恋(p.125-248)
• Sensei’s first love (p.148-149) 初恋
• I was filled with a new awareness, far greater than
any that I had ever experienced before, of the
power of the opposite sex. (p.148)初恋のときめき
• I had come to distrust people in money matters,
but I had not yet learned to doubt love. (p.150) 当
時人間のお金に対する執着に失望していたが、愛に対し
て疑うことはまだなかった。
• Sensei felt love of religion towards Ojaosan.
• 先生は性愛でなく、お嬢さんに対して、信仰のような愛を感じた。
• Koto = symbol of a young Japanese lady
• Flower arrangement = gentleness of women
52
Sensei and His Testament (p.125-248)
• K’s confession of love Ｋの愛の告白
• And so I was shocked. Imagine my reaction when K, ih his
heavy way, confessed to me his agonized love for Ojoasan.
I felt as if I had been turned into stone by a gagician7s
wand. I could not even move my lips as K had done.
• Exactly what the emotion was that I felt then, I am not sure.
Perhaps it was fear; or perhaps it was terrible pain.
Whatever it was, its physical effect was to make me feel
rigid from head to toe, as though I were a pieece of stone
or iron. (P. 204)
• When finally K stopped talking, I found myself unable to
say anything. I want you to understand that I was not silent
because I was debating with myself whether I should make
a similar confession to K or whether it would be wiser
policy to say nothing about my love for Ojosan. (p.204)53
Sensei and His Testament (p.125-248)
(Q) What was the contradiction within Sensei’s mind?
Friendship changed into antipathy and hatered
Kindness changed into jealousy and stress.
Supporting K changed into destroying him.
Humanizing K changed into agonizing him.
“If his new serenity had come as a result of his contact with
Ojosan, then I would find it impossible to forgive him.”
(p. 187)
Sesnsei gradually hated him because of his self-confidence
and lofty mind.
Once, I grabbed K’s neck from behind, “What would you do,”
I said, “if I pushed you into the sea?”
Without looking back, he said:“That would be pleasant,
Please do.” (p.186) (Prediction and analogy of this tragedy) 54
Sensei and His Testament (p.125-248)
• The power of jealousy within Sensei
• I had scored a victory over K, and my heart was filled with
a sense of triumph. (p.194)
• I have no intension of denying that I was jealous. (p.199)
• After K’s entrance on the scene, however, it was the
suspicion that Ojaosan might prefer him to me that was
responsible for my inaction. (p.200)
• Now is the time, I thought , to destroy my opponent.
• I confess to you that what I was trying to do was far more
cruel than mere revenge. I wanted to destroy whatever
hope there might have been in his love for Ojosan. (p. 214)
• I said again :”Anyone who has no spiritual aspiration is an
idiot.” I watched K closely, I wanted to see how my words
were affecting him. “An idiot…?” he said at last. “ Yes, I’m
55
an idiot.” (p.215) 先生はＫに恋などしないで、崇高であってほしかった。恋
をする愚か者になっておしくなかった。
Love and Jealousy in Sensei ’s Kokoro
Distrust
Suspicion
Regret
Jealousy
Jealousy
Love
Despair
Anxiety
Anger
Agony
56
Sensei and His Testament (p.125-248)
• (Q) What was the strategy of Sensei to win
Ojaosan’s love?
• （先生のお嬢さんの愛を得るための戦略）
• Sensei secretly tried to get a permission to get
marred with Ojaosan from her mother without
saying anything about his love for Ojosan to K.
• “Okusan,” I blurted out, “ I want to marry Ojosan.”
• “All right, “ she said finally, “You may have
her”(p.222)
57
Sensei’s agony
①
(p.125-248)
• Sensei’s inner agony and pain as a betrayer.
• I felt very tense that afternoon, it is true; but where
was my conscience? I returned to the house.
• As usual, I went into K’s room in order to get to
mine. It was then that I felt guilty for the first time.
(p.224)
• “ Are you feeling better now? Have you seen the
doctor?” Suddenly, I wanted to kneel before him
and beg his forgiveness. It was a violent emotion
that I felt then. I think that had K and I been alone
in some wilderness, I would have listened to the
cry of my conscience. But there were others in the
house. I soon overcame the impulse of my natural
self to be true to K. I only wish I had been given
another such opportunity to ask K’s forgiveness.
58
(p.225)
Sensei ‘s Agony ② (p.125-248)
• Sensei’s inner agony and pain as a betrayer.
• K, then had known about it for over two days,
though one would never have guessed this form
his manner. I could not but admire his calm,
however superficial it may have been. It seemed to
me that he was much the worthier of the two of us.
I said to myself: “Through cunning, I have won.
But as a man, I have lost.”
• My sense of defeat then became so violent that it
seemed to spin around in my head like a
whirlpool. And when I imagined how
contemptuous K must be of me, I blushed with
shame. I wanted to go to K and apologized for
what I had done, but my pride-my fear of
humiliation – restrained me. (p.228)
59
• But that night K killed himself. (p.228)
Sensei’s Agony ③ (p.125-248)
• Sensei’s Agony
• Sensei’s agony like Hamlet, “To be or not to be, that is the
question” “Should I go on living as I do now, like a mummy
left in the midst of living beings, or should I …?”
• “I was a coward. And like most cowards I suffered because
I could not decide.” (p.125)
• “I am an inconsistent person.” (p.126)
• When I speak of darkness, I mean moral darkness. For I was born an
ethical creature, and I was brought up to be an ethical man.” (p.128)
• 倫理的な人間として育ち、倫理的人間だったのに、
• 友を裏切り、罪を犯して、非倫理的な人間になったことへの苦しみー moral
darkness
• How could I continue to have hope, no matter how forlorn,
when the sight of her face seemed always to bring back
haunting memories of K? Some times, the idea occurred to
me that she was like a chain that linked me to K for the rest
of my life. (p.237)
60
Sensei and His Testament (p.125-248)
• Sensei’s shock when K killed himself.
• My first thought was, “it’s too late” It was then that the
great shadow that would forever darken the course of my
life spread before my mind’s eye. And from somewhere in
the shadow a voice seemed to be whispering: “It’s too
late… It’s too late… My whole body began to tremble.”
(p.229)
• But even at such a moment I could not forget my own
welfare. When I had quickly read it (K’s note for Snesei:
will) through, my first thought was: “ I’m safe. “ (I was
thinking only of my reputation: at the time when others
thought of me seemed of great importance. (p.230)
61
Sensei and His Testament (p.125-248)
• Sensei’s shock when K killed himself.
• The letter was simply written. K explained his suicide only
in a very general way. He had decided to die, he said,
because there seemed no hope of his ever becoming the
firm, resolute person that he had always wanted to be.
• He thanked me for my many kindness in the past: and as a
last favor to him, would I, he asked, take care of everything
after his behalf for causing her so much trouble. And he
wanted me to notify his relatives of his death. In this brief
businesslike letter, there was no mention of Ojosan. I soon
realized that K had purposely avoided any reference to her.
But what affected me most was his last sentence, which
had perhaps been written as an afterthought: “Why did I
wait so long to die?” (p. 230)
62
Ｋの自殺の原因 (Q) Why did K killed himself?
• 1. His falling in love woman goes against his religious
“True Way” and he was ashamed of himself, although he
was humanized.
• 2 Sensei’s criticism on K by giving back K’s pet theory;
“Anyone who has no spiritual aspirations is an idiot” which
became the final blow to K’s dicision to kill himself. He
found himself idiot within the framework of his conviction,
“ Anyone without spiritual aspiration is an idiot.”
• 3. His shock when he heard the engagement of Sensei with
Ojosan from her mother not from Sensei. (His innocence)
• 4.He felt he hurt Sensei by confessing his love for Ojosan
in the face of Sensei’s silence.
• 5. He has already prepared to die after he could not trust
anything except Sensei’s friendship and human warmth.
• 6 Then he said suddenly: “Am I prepared…?” Before I could say
anything, he added: “Why not? I can will myself…” He seemed to
63
be talking to himself . (p.217)
先生の自殺の原因 Sensei’s suicide
• Why did Sensei leave this world?
• I felt very strongly the sinfulness of man. It was
his feeling that sent me to K’s grave every month,
that made me take care of my mother-in-law in her
illness and behave gently towards my wife. It was
this sense of sin that led me to feel sometimes
that I would welcome a flogging even at the hands
of strangers.
• When this desire for punishment became
particularly strong, I would begin to feel that it
should come from myself, and not others. Then I
would think of death. Killing myself seemed a just
punishment for my sins, Finally, I decided to go64on
living as if I were dead. (p.243)
(Q) Why did sensei want to keep the
truth secret from his wife?
• I want both the good and bad things in my
past to serve as an example to others. But
my wife is the one exception- I do not want
her to know about any of this. My first wish
is that her memory of me should be kept as
unsullied as possible. So long as my wife is
alive, I want you to keep everything I have
told you a secret-even after I myself am
dead. (p. 248) The End.
• (Q)Why?????
• (Q)What did happen to Watashi and Shizu after Sensei’s65
death? Can you continue the story>
(Q) 先生の死：What are causes of Sensei’s Suicide?
1.
2.
Very complicated as we see in our daily lives and
human relationships. However, the indirect trigger was
the General Nogi’s self-immolation death on the death
Emperor Meji as Sensei was well aware of General Nogi’s
agony like his own after the death of K.
Eto Jun pointed out a “dual motivation” a personal
desire to end his years of egoistic suffering, and a public
desire to demonstrate his loyalty to the emperor.
(through loyalty to the spirit of the Meiji era.)
Direct trigger must be Sensei’s sense of guilt and the
death of K, which resulted from his betrayal and his
skillful engagement despite the fact that K confessed his
love for Ojosan to Sensei. (Escape from his guilt)
K restored his integrity by writing nothing about his
relationships with Ojosdan in his last note for Sensei
when he died. Sensei became a loser and K became a
winner in terms of “True Way” based on spirituality and
66
ethical code in Meiji.
(Q) 先生の死：What are causes of Sensei’s Suicide?
3 Sensei’s wrong doing by deceiving K and
approached Okusan to win the love of Ojosan.
4. Sensei made use of the K’s conviction of
““Anyone who has no spiritual aspiration is idiot.”
and put it back to K when he confessed. But actually
Sensei suffered from this words for many years after
K’s death. （“ Anyone without spiritual aspiration is
an idiot.” (精神的に向上心のない者は馬鹿だ。）
5. Sensei repeated again and again deep in his
mind,” Where was my conscience?” （良心の呵責）
(Self-blame)
6. Whatever the reason, Sensei’s failure to be
honest (誠実）with K has brought about the most
disastrous consequence as well as Sensei’s
67
unhappy marriage haunted by K’s dark shadow..
(Q) What is the difference between K’s death and that of
Sensei?
① K left this world as he could not accept his natural desire of romantic
love which goes against his “spiritual aspiration and true way”.
②Snesei left this world by giving love for his mother-in-law as a human as
he tried to humanized K’s heart by welcoming him into his lodging house
and introducing lovely Ojosan and Okusan under the same roof.
③ Sensei met Watshi ( I ) as the most trustful person who respected him,
and, he had a young man whom he can finally confessed everything as a
testament.
③
A man capable of love, or I should say rather a man who was by nature
incapable of not loving; but a man who could not wholeheartedly accept
the love of another –such a one was Sensei. (p.12)
68
The role of Watashi in “Kokoro”
both in retrospect and prospect
• Sensei & K= (Past), Shizu (Present) , Watashi= (Future)
• Anachronism で大人になれなかった先生に対峙して私は成熟し
た大人として、静に対して責任を持って接する。
• One speculation and possible prediction is that Watashi
will live with Shizu as a mature man, confirming the fact
and truth of Sensei’s drama, accepting Shizu as what she
was and what she is, and starting family with responsibility
to make Shizu happy.
• Put yourself in the place of Watashi who got modern
education at University of Tokyo in this dramatic tragedy,
and you will see the next action that Watashi will take after
the death of Sensei for the sake of a beautiful, innocent
and emotionally wounded young wife who was left alone in
this world as a victim of the man of loneliness in
69
anachronism in Meiji era.
What is Soseki’s warning for the problem of
modernization 近代化の問題
• 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.” (p.30)
• In those days, such phrases as “the age of
awakening” and “the new life” has not yet
come into fashion. But you must not think
that K’s inability to discard his old ways
and begin his life anew was due to his lack
of modern concepts. (p.218)
70
Historical and Cultural background for Kokoro
• Japanese society
European society
Confucianism
The collective harmony
based on Confucianism
and agriculture
Individualism
The individual values
based on Christianity
and democratic capitalism
In Kokoro, published in 1914, he Soseki expresses deep sorrow about
the inevitable growth of individualism at the expense of Confucianism,
leading ultimately to irreversible personal social isolation and despair.
Like William Faulkner he is a modernist in theme and tone of writing.
And like Faulker he is reacting to the rapid changes of his time.
In a book on Natusme Soseki, Beongcheon Yu, expresses as follows;
“Meiji Japan, in its radical departure from feudal tradition, was as
profoundly romantic as Renaissance England, a comparison which has
often been suggested by historians. Few artists could escape its
pervading romantic spirit in their zealous pursuit of art and life.”
71
(Yu 22.).
Sensei’s inner Conflicts between
Filial Piety of Confucianism and Individualism
• Individualism and freedom influenced by Western modernization
•
•
•
•
and capitalism
Symbolic representation:
1) Sensei’s uncle: a modern entrepreneur as well as an unfaithful
husband and selfish guardian of Sensei
2) Sensei: Sensei repeatedly violated the Confucian moral of “Filial
Piety” by refusing uncle’s offer of arranged marriage with his daughter.
3) Sensei’s offense against his best friend K, by violating true
friendship for the sake of his romantic love for Ojosan.
• Collectivism based on Confucian moral ( Sensei’s selfpunishment)
• 1) Sensei’s ultimate suicide can finally be explained by his selfpunishment (traditional moral ) which won over Individualism in
modernism.
• 2) While still alive, Sensei had come to the conclusion that his only
choice at that time was to go on living as if he were dead.
72
Collectivism and Individualism
Soseki’s Intention in Kokoro
• The book “Kokoro” stands as a reminder of
destructiveness of individualism.
• Soseki described the loneliness of the outcasts as the
direct price paid for the pursuit of individualistic
tendencies at the expense of the collective.
• Soseki concludes that hopelessness, pessimism, and
despair seem to be the only certain outcome of the
breakdown.
• Soseki reveals the didactic purpose of his book to us with
Sensei’s comments in his testament.
• “To you alone, then, among the millions of Japanese, I
wish to tell my past. For you are sincere and because once
you said in all sincerity that you wished to learn from life
itself. (p.128) 先生は 誠実な「私」＝日本人全体に語りかけている
73
(Q) What is the today’s significance of Soseki ?.漱石の今日的意義
We could compare Soseki with Shakespeare in
terms of his excellence in dramatic irony and
human analysis. I found some similarity between
Othelo and Kokoro. We can learn timeless and
priceless values and significance through the eyes
and the heart of Soseki in Meiji era influenced by
the powerful Westernization and Modernization.
Soseki already predicted and warned the problems
of 2011 in his works in Meiji Era. We can see human
loneliness, aloofness, alienation from society, guilt
in loving and human agony.
Only the works of great writer like Soseki survive
through the judge of time. Popular writer will be
forgotten when their readers die. However great
writer can give some answers to the questions of
human loneliness and suffering beyond time and
culture.
(Nakamura, 2011) 74
江藤 淳の評論 Comments on “Kokoro”
by Jun Eto, famous critic of Soseki
• Soseki tried to prove the impossibility of love
between man and woman rather than exploring
the possibility of love.
• The significance of “Kokoro” is that Soseki
consistently tried to describe the impossibility
of love between man and woman with all his
intelligence and power, albeit he felt in his bone
the absolute necessity of love.
• No other novel has ever described so
objectively and calmly the hopeless shadow of
love between man and woman than the work
75
“Kokoro” Jun Eto (1979)
漱石の理想：｢即天去私」と「我執」
• Soseki’s ideal is “Leaving everything to
the heaven (The hand of God) and
forgetting self ”
• However, Soseki has been suffering
from his individualism, ego, and
personal desire.
76
Collectivism in Confucianism
and Individualism in Westernization
• Soseki specialized English and English Literature at Tokyo University
and graduated with honored bachelor’s degree. However, deep in his
mind he said he could not but have a feeling of emptiness. “My only
regret was that though I had studied, I had never mastered the heart of
things.” (qtd. In Yu 25) This desire to master the heart of things
motivates him later to write one of his master works, Kokoro.
• He was sent to England as one of the promising young scholars.
Overseas to absorb Western way and help Japanese culture expand to
new horizons. His experiences in England changes Soseki into a
modern Japanese writer and not into an English classicist as he had
hoped.
• In England he was homesick and longed for the safety and security of
the past while understanding all along that life can only move forward,
never backwards. The discovery of the self and his individuality was a
lonely and painful process. He describes this journey and its
consequences in Kokoro. The lonely journey will be part of his entire
life. (p.76)
•
77
Contrast and Comparison
Shakespeare and Soseki
Shakespeare (1564-1616) age 52
• Elizabethan Age in England
• Colonial rule of the British in Dublin
• Religious and political reformation
• Outward-going dramatist
Soaseki (1867-1916) age 50
Meiji era in Japan
Industrial imperialism by USA
Modernization of Japan
Introvert novelists
•
similarity
• ①The contrast and the conflict between the old and the new
• ② Dealing with human truth, such as love, trust, jealousy, guilt, deceit,
•
sinfulness, punishment in their works of Tragedy.
③ Dealing with what is real in human nature and what is common to
all humanity both in their works of Comedy and Tragedy.
• ④ Sharp observation of human psychology and human analysis
• ⑤ The quality of satire and criticism in Comedies
• ⑥ Human weakness such as changes and contradiction caused by
•
ambition and jealousy in their works of Tragedy
78
The power of jealousy: Kokoro (K and Sensei’s suicides)
Othello (Othello Killed his wife and his suicide)
Othello
Sensei
Green Eyes
•
Othello’s
best
Soldier
Cassio
Jealousy
and Inferior
complex to K
made him
Irrational
Jealousy
for Cassio
made him
Irrational
and cruel
The most
The
Faithful
designer
Beautiful
of jealousy
Wife
Iago
Desdimona
and selfish
Student
Trustful
I
Watashi
Honorable
Daughter
Wife
Shizu
Sensei’s
shadow
Sensei’s
best friend
who became
his shadow
K
79
Dramatic Irony in Shakespeare and Soseki
• In Shakespearian drama, there are many scenes
that presents us the dramatic irony in relation to
the development of the stream of the drama.
Dramatic irony has a dramatic effectiveness on
the tragedy or comedy as long as the truth is alive.
One of the approaches to the appreciation of
Shakespearean drama is to understand the
dramatic irony involved in the hero or heroine’s
innocence.
(Nakamura, 1972)
• Dramatic irony can be defined as a dramatic
context in which the author, readers and audience
know very well but the hero or heroine does not
know a fact (human truth), and consequently they
are actually suffering from this. (Nakamura, 1972) 80
The parallel between Shakespeare’s play and
Soseki’s novels by Peter Milward
• In the case of Elizabethan England, it was the
religious and political reformation inaugurated by
Henry VIII and completed under his daughter
Elizabeth I that cut off Englishmen in the present
from their mediaeval past and thus exposed them
to the sway of European fashions.
• In the case of Meiji Japan, it was the restoration of
imperial rule and the opening of he country to
Western trade and influence that similarly cut off
Japanese in the present from their feudal past
and thus exposed them to the sway of Western
fashions. (Peter Milward)
81
The parallel between Shakespeare’s play and
Soseki’s novels by Peter Milward
And to these change the attitude of Soseki was
much the same as that of Shakespeare in
Elizabethan England.
When we find in almost all Soseki’s novels from
“Wagahai wa neko de aru” onwards is an
outspoken satire on the aping of Western manners
that came in with Japan’s opening to the West. Not
that he himself hated or despised the West. His own
novels are sufficient evidence of his willingness to
avail himself of Western ideas and influence—but
not a the expense of his Japanese identity. .
(Peter Milward)
82
The parallel between Shakespeare’s play and
Soseki’s novels by Peter Milward
• He wanted by all means to remain distinctively Japanese.
He prized the traditions of old Japan. Yet at the same time
he saw the need of accommodating himself and his
writings to the new order, so long as he did not have to
sacrifice what was dearest to himself as a Japanese. It
was, in fact, in his honest confrontation of his serious
problem—that of the relative claims of new and old—that
we may say his genius as a novelist, like the genius of
Shakespeare as a dramatist, consists. If it led him at times
dangerously close to a neurotic condition, the same may
be said--and has been said by eminent scholars---of
Shakespeare both at the beginning and at the end of his
tragic period.
(Peter Milward, p.312)
83
Senpai=Kohai in academia
• Many students today reading Kokoro for the first time
frequently assume a gay relationship between Sensei and
Watakushi and, while not ruling out such a possibility, I
would point out that the senpai-kohai relationship is a
common one in Japan (probably evident in all Asian
countries with a Confucian heritage and the bunjin,
literatus, or gentleman scholar, tradition). One doesn’t
study alone as in the American myth of the lucubrating Abe
Lincoln, ubt rather one sees a sensei. The sensei
traditionally will require an apprentice who serves
variously as errand boy, assistant, ink grinder, and
companion.
• (p.102)
84
(Q) What is the today’s significance of Soseki ?.
漱石の今日的意義
• Soseki consistently explored the difficulty
and impossibility of human love, albeit he
also needed the absolute necessity of
human love. In こころ、それから、門、the main
theme is human agony through the bliss
and pain of love in triangle human relations
and it ends up with 明暗 when Soseki died.
• Soseki could not finalized the story and he
left the rest to the reader’s imagination as
he passed away while he was writing.
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Hidden Secret ①
The Sliding Door separates Sensei and K
• (Q) What does the sliding door which separates Sensei’s room and K’s
room symbolize? 先生とKの部屋の仕切りの襖＝先生の心の襖
• Sensei’s room= Self 先生の部屋（自己）, K’s room= Others (他者）
• Ｋ is a reflecting mirror of Sensei’s mind (Kは先生の心を写す合わせ鏡 )
• ① At about ten o’clock, the door between our rooms was suddenly
opened, and I saw K looking at me from the doorway. “What are you
thinking about ?” he said. (p. 202)
• ② “Were you asleep?”……. K stepped back into his room and closed
the door. (p. 219).
• ③ “As I opened my eyes, I saw that the door between K’s room and
mine was ajar.” (p. 229)
• K left the door open a little for the last communication with Sensei for
two nights. Sensei was not aware of that or ignored it.
•
If Sensei had opened the sliding door of his mind and confessed his passionate love for
Ojosan to K like K did, K and Sensei ‘s life would have been different.
•
Sensei deceived K and himself for the sake of love by ignoring the door of Kokoro.
•
Ｋ＝こころ
Ｋの自殺で先生はこころを失う。
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Hidden Secret ② sin and crucifixion
Sensei and I ＝ Jesus Christ and St. John
• You wished to cut open my heart and see the blood flow. I was then
still alive. I did not want to die. That is why I refused you and
postponed the granting of your wish to another day.
• Now, I myself am about to cut open my own heart, and drench your
face with my blood. And I shall be satisfied it, when my heart stops
beating, a new life lodges itself in your breast. (p. 129)
• Original Sin= Sensei’s sin ( winning Eve=Shizu by deceiving K)
•
•
•
•
•
•
Jesus’ s (compensation)=crucified =Sensei’s suicide
As the disciple, St. John drank Jesus’s wine, I (Watashi) drank Sensei’s
blood and lodged new life.
Jesus said, “I am with you for only a short time, and then I go to the one
who sent me. You will look for me, but you will not find me; and where I am,
you cannot come.” (JOHN: 7-33, The New Testament)
“If I testify about myself, my testimony is not valid. There is another who
testifies in my favor, and I know that his testimony about me is valid.”
(JOHN 5:31, The New Testament)
“ You have sent to John and he has testified to the truth. Not that I accept
human testimony; but I mention it that you may be saved.”
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(JOHN 5:33-34, The New Testament)
③The hidden truth of love in “Kokoro” (in retrospect & prospect)
• Evidence ① The first encounter of Watashi with Shizu. (p.16)
• “The first time I met Sensei’s wife in the front hall, I thought her
beautiful. And each time I saw her after that I was similarly impressed
by her beauty.” (p.16)
• “My memory of the early part of our acquaintance, then, consists of
nothing more than the impression of her beauty. (p.16 )
• Evidence ②
•
•
•
•
The number of letters.
Sensei wrote two letters. “I received from him only two pieces of
correspondence that might strictly be called “letters.” One of them
was the simple letter that I have just mentioned, and the other was a
very long letter which he wrote me shortly before his death.”(p. 48)
But Watashi received another letter. Who wrote?
I received from them a letter with a maple leaf enclosed. (p.18 )
A letter with a maple leaf enclosed at that time means close
friendship, intimacy, warm closeness and affection
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③The hidden truth of love in “Kokoro” (in retrospect & prospect)
• Evidence③ p.33-p.43 The private and serious conversation
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
between Watashi and Shizu when Sensei was out. (10 pages)
“I was deeply impressed by her capacity for sympathy and
understanding.” (p.37)
“True, being a man, I felt an instinctive yarning for women. “(P. 38)
“I did not even feel, when I was with her, that intellectual gulf which so
often separates men from women.” (p. 38) (Respect for Shizu)
“As Sensei’s wife said this, I noticed that there were tears in her eyes.”
(p.39)
I tried, as far as I was able, to comfort Sensei’s wife. And it seemed
that she was trying to find some comfort in my company. (p.42)
Soseki’s belief that “Pity’s akin to love,” reflects throughout his works
and Watashi’s compassion for Shizu in “Kokoro” is one of them.
Soseki wrote “Pity’s akin to love” in the works of “Sanshiro” and we
found many love stories in which compassion can transform into love
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in his works. (And Then, Gate, The Wayfarer, Lights and Darkness)
③The hidden truth of love in “Kokoro” (in retrospect & prospect)
• Evidence ④ Shizu’s unhappy marriage life
•
Sensei wrote “It was my wife who unwittingly reminded me of harsh
reality every time we were together. How could I continue to have hope,
no matter how forlorn, when the sight of her face seemed always to
bring back haunting memories of K? (p.237)
• * Shizu’s doublt about man.
• My wife once asked me: “ Can’t a man’s heart and a woman’s heart
ever become a part of each other, so that they are one?” (p.242)
• Evidence ⑤ Sensei knew Shize would be left alone when he died.
• My mother- in-law did. There remained only my wife and myself. My
wife said to me:” In all the world, I now have only you to turn to.”
• I looked at her, and my eyes suddenly filled with tears. How could I,
who had no trust in myself, give her the comfort she needed?
I thought her a very unfortunate woman. (p. 241)
• Evidence ⑥ Sensei’s last words are very selfish as a man who
passionately proposed a woman.
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• “So long as my wife is alive, I want you to keep everything I have told
you a secret—even after I myself am dead. (p.248)
The hidden truth of love in “Kokoro”
• Evidence ⑦
• “It would be so nice if we had children.”
Sensei’s wife said to me.” “Yes, wouldn’t it
?” I answered. But I could feel no real
sympathy for her. At my age, children
seemed an unnecessary nuisance. (p. 17)
• (translated by Ewin McClellan in 1957)
• “子供を持った事のないその時の私は、子供をた
だうるさいもののように 考えていた。(原文）
•
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The hidden truth of love in “Kokoro”
both in retrospect and prospect
• Evidence ⑦
• “It would be nice if we had children, you
know,” she said, turning to me.
• “Yes, I’m sure.” I replied. But I felt no stir of
sympathy at her words. I was too young to
have children of my own and regarded them
as no more than noisy pets.
(P. 18. Translation by Meredith Mckinney in 2010)
• “子供を持った事のないその時の私は、子供をた
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だうるさいもののように 考えていた。(原文）
Translation problem.
• I, who did not have any children at that time,
thought they are an unnecessary nuisance.
• (Koji’s translation)
• We can imagine from Japanese original sentence,
(not English translation by McClellan) that Watashi
who is writing this today seems to have children.
Whose children?
• “We’ll never have one of our own, you know,”
said Sensei. “Divine punishment,” Sensei
answered, and laughed rather loudly (p.17)
• (Can Watashi accept Sensei’s justification?)
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Gender Romantic love Triangles caused by jealousy
in the Novel of Natsume Soseki
Kokoro (The heart, 1914)
静 （Shizu＝Ojosan)
先生 Sensei
Ｋ
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Gender Romantic love Triangles caused by compsssion
in the Novel of Natsume Soseki
Kokoro
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漱石の今日的意義
• 最近、青春時代に読んだ漱石の「三四郎」「こころ」「それから」、
「門」を読み返し、漱石の人間分析の鋭さと人生の明暗をしみじみ
感じました。これらの作品において、主人公こそ異なりますが、漱石
は一貫して愛の不可能性と絶望的陰影を描いているように思えまし
た。人と「心」との出遭いは人生を豊かにし、人の「心」との別れは人
生をより深くします。
• 江藤淳は「こころ」を中心として、漱石のことを「人間的愛の絶対的
必要性を痛切に感じながら、それが同時に絶対的に不可能である
ことを、全ての智力を傾けて描いていた奇妙な男の姿が、これらの
作品の行間から浮かび上がってくる。」(1974年. p.153）と評す。
• 漱石は明治維新の前の年1867年に生まれ、1900年からロンドン大
学へ留学し、異文化不適用で心の病に苦しみました。それは彼が
西洋かぶれでなく、真の日本人だったからかもしれません。漱石は
帰国後、近代化と西洋文明のもたらす心の問題を作品を通して警
鐘しています。「我輩は猫である」や「坊ちゃん」に見られる風刺的喜
劇から「こころ」にみられる悲劇を描き、国際的な漱石に関する英語
の論文では、人間分析と観察力の観点から高く評価され、英国のシ
エイクスピアと比較されて論じられております。特に1916年に最後
の長編作品「明暗」を書きながら途中でペンを折り、50歳で死んで
行った漱石が、死ぬ2年前に書いた作品「こころ」の構成力と、第3
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章の「先生の遺言」はすさまじいパワーを感じます。
漱石の今日的意義
• 還暦を過ぎて、漱石に再び向き合い、読書を通して故人と親しくさせ
ていただけることを感謝しています。最近一つ理解できた漱石の価
値は、近代化の波に日本社会と日本人の多くが翻弄されたあの明
治の時代にあって、一見時流に超然としていたかに見える漱石が、
実は最も鋭く日本人の心の危機感を察知し、作品を通して、我々に
「我執」の問題点を警鐘していることです。漱石は時空を超えて、百
年後の日本人にも「日本人のアイデンティティ」や「日本人の心」の
本質を失わないように警告しているように思われます。
• 孤高に生き、「即天去私」を理想とする漱石が、その理想と自分自身
の「我執」との葛藤に苦しんだことは、きわめて人間的であり、「即天
去私」の悟達を超える価値があると思います。漱石の価値は己の
「我執」から生まれる苦しみを作品の中の主人公を通して、誠実に
表象したことであり、まさに「実存」そのものであります。さらに、漱石
の偉大さは、時代を超えて、その作品の多くが個人主義を標榜して
きた西洋人に愛され、欧米の大学の博士論文になり、さらに、グ
ローバル化に翻弄される今のアジアの多くの学徒達にも広く読まれ
ていることだと思います。
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