Featured Book
of the Month
Every month we choose one book. Availble for examination and discussion on Book Cafe Days (check calendar).
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This Month's Selection:
Kokoro: Sensei no Isho
by Natsume Soseki
Penguin Books translation by Meredith McKinney
ISBN 978-0-14-310603-6
Reviewed by Peter Grabas
This book is a classic of early 20th century Japan and is read today by all who seek an understanding and appreciation of Japanese Literature. Love, friendship, loyalty, guilt, betrayal, honor and cultural clash are woven into the fabric of this story of an unhappy older man and an admiring younger one. The literal translation of Kokoro is heart, or heart of the matter. Written in 1914 during a period of great social and cultural change it transcends that period of time and speaks to one’s soul, or heart and since there is little reference in the story that overtly dates it or makes it feel out of sync with today, it makes it relevant to contemporary issues within us.
The story is written in three parts
• The first part of the book is the student meeting Sensei and his wife and his growing
fascination with the older man.
• The second is the students return to home to his ailing father and family, and his
fathers and Emperor’s subsequent death. The student receives a long letter, a testament,
from Sensei.
•The third is a testament or explanation written by Sensei for his actions and reveals
the mystery why he was the kind of man he is.
This story is principally between a young university student, and his much older friend whom he calls Sensei*, sensei’s wife and a few additional characters of family and friends. The substance and quality of the story is achieved on the repeated instances where Sensei projects himself as an withdrawn (and unhappy) man, a misanthrope, creating a mystery as to why a fine man such as he is has such attitudes. All is made clear by the third part in which he reveals why he has become the way he is and places a tremendous moral decision upon the student. This style creates a story within the story and gives the magnificent strength to the first two parts.
Although the wife is a secondary character but central to the story the focus is primarily
between the student and Sensei. The names of people are mostly substituted by titles such as
wife and honorifics like Sensei that have the subtle effect of merging individual characters
into archetypes representing young and old generations with their different values. Written
about love, friendship, loyalty, guilt, betrayal and morality there is the additional backdrop
of cultural transition that parallels an individuals conflict between self interest and the
aforementioned feelings today. This is significant because it addresses the eternal changing
values of generations and also the very specific change in values that occurred at the turn
of the century when ‘old’ Japan was replaced by the ‘new’ Japan. The end of that remnant of
Confucian mindset of feudal Japan with the advent of the Western modern individualistic self
or egocentric mindset had dramatic stress on society, is briefly and specifically mentioned
in the story, and is reflective of contemporary internal stresses of duty to self and duty to
clan, company, country. Although Soseki was writing about emotions mentioned earlier he wrote
it in and that era’s changing social climate which held a great deal of significance for readers
at that time. For a deeper understanding of the book, its interplay with that era and with modern
values it helps to understand a little historical background of that time. For those who are
familiar with Japanese history and the Mejie period feel free to skip the next historical section.
A brief history (This is just an overview and I invite the reader to pursue actual
historians writings).
Japan is an island nation, and island cultures tend to be more isolated and ideocentric
in thinking and culture (more polite too) than mainland cultures that are without the major
barriers of oceans. Because of constant political and military threat Japan’s contact with
their Korean and Chinese neighbors was always strained and reticent. Contact with the west
In the late 1500’s had dramatic influence upon the feudal system with the introduction of
Christianity and gunpowder.
In 1639 after decades of political and social problems that challenged the power of the Shogunate and the ruling class foreigners foreigners were tossed out, Christianity banned and Japan was closed from contact with the west (except to the Dutch who were restricted and monitored to Nagasaki, as well as China/Korea) this stayed so for about two hundred years until a Western military fleet (American Admiral Perry) arrived in the harbor and would not leave, demanding relations and trade.
This event triggered an understanding that Japan was militarily, technologically and
industrially inferior and ‘too isolated’ making the Shogunate decide that it was a necessity
to embrace the industrial techniques and engineering of the west to meet this challenge. This
process led to Japan’s leadership in these fields today, but the process of acquiring new
methods also had an influx of foreign cultural and political ideas that were diametrically
opposed to traditional Japan. Japan had the Confucian way of life which stressed sacrifice
of self for the group, lord or the state which worked very well for the feudal Samurai Shogunate,
and the West had its stress on the individual and sacrifice for self. Somehow over half a
century it all got sorted out (with the terrible side effect of extreme militarism which
led to 30 years of war and conflict). But the transition was difficult as the younger
generations always seemed to embrace more of self in opposition to the ways of
group for the older. (Although this is a mantra of all older generations--everywhere--it
had greater relevance in that time in Japan).
At
the time of the writing of Kokoro the Emperor Mejie was the last vestige of ‘old Japan’ and when he died, figuratively old Japan did as well. One of his trusted generals a remnant of feudal/traditional thinking committed ritual suicide ‘seppeku’ to die with his lord.These deaths are used in the book as a trigger that causes profound effects upon the characters
and gives the story its structure. I do recommend this book with the caveat that the impact of
the book comes from reading the third part which
gives the first two parts their substance.
*Sensei is an honorific title bestowed on someone who is a teacher or whom one learns from
and is in deference to.
Peter Grabas
link to their bio
For more on the author Natsume Soseki Wikipedia
