Natsume SÅseki
Natsume Soseki (Japanese夏 目 漱 石, actually Natsume Kinnosuke夏 目 金 之 助; born February 9, 1867 in Ushigome, Edo (today Shinjuku, Tokyo ); † December 9, 1916 in Tokyo ) is one of the most famous Japanese writers of the Meiji period.
Background and education
Natsume Soseki was the youngest of eight children. When his mother brought him to the world, it was, therefore, already old and the fact that now another son should follow, they shamed a lot. That's why - and also because the formerly wealthy family, financially could not afford to raise another child - the infant to the former staff Shiobara Masanosuke (塩 原 昌 之 助) was issued. The latter took care of his wife to Kinnosuke until he was nine years old. After him his biological parents took back with him on - posing as his grandparents - although his father did so with reservations. His mother died when he was fourteen years old.
Despite the fact that Natsume Kinnosuke unintentional, ergo unloved, kid, his father gave him a good education: he was sent on a chinese minded school, where he discovered his passion for Chinese literature and the ardent developed desire, perhaps a to be day writer. His family was less than enthusiastic about this idea and he himself realized that a life was a rather unprofitable existence as an author his lifetime. When he began in September 1884 to attend the University of Tokyo, he did so with the intention of becoming an architect. During this time he began English - a language he deeply hated - to learn, because he felt that it might be useful to him in his later career.
In 1887 he met Masaoka Shiki in a friend, who in his quest to become a writer, supported him. Shiki introduced him to the art of haiku poetry. From this point on, Natsume Soseki began to sign his poems with the name Soseki. This name appears in the proverb Soseki - chinryū (漱 石 枕 流) in the Jin Shu with the meaning of a "bad loser " or " bossy " on. In 1890, he joined the Department of English Literature of the Imperial University of Tokyo and quickly became a master of the English language. Soseki completed his studies in 1893 and was a substitute teacher for English at the Higher Normal School Tokyo ( later Tokyo University of Education ).
In 1895, Natsume Soseki teacher at a middle school in Ehime Prefecture in Shikoku. This is the place where the plot of his novel Botchan should play. In addition to his work as a teacher, he published haiku poetry and Chinese poetry in a number of newspapers and magazines. In 1896 he resigned and began to teach at the 5th High School in Kumamoto. On 10 June of the same year, he married Nakane Kyoko (中 根 镜子).
1900 traveled Natsume Soseki as an emissary of the Japanese government to London to study there. He went to Cambridge, where he spent one night and looked at the University of. He gave his plan to enroll as a student, but soon, as he could not finance through his teacher's salary. The time in London was for him the strength and tradition-conscious family associations know, horrible and traumatizing: Most of the time he spent alone in his apartment behind books. His friends were worried that it could be possibly mad. He lived as a tenant in four different apartments. Nevertheless, he managed to complete his knowledge of English literature. He returned at the end of 1902 to Japan. Five years later he wrote about this time: " The two years I spent in London were the most unpleasant of my life. Among English gentlemen I lived in misery, like a poor dog that has strayed into a pack of wolves. "
The travails of stay in London should, however, pay off: He was professor of English literature at Tokyo Imperial University.
In 1909, he traveled at the expense of the South Manchurian Railway Company through Manchuria and Korea. In this endeavor Man- Kan tokoro was dokoro (満韓 ところどころ), a travelogue with fictional elements, in which he brings his disregard for the local population and culture and being dealt extensively with his health.
The Literary Career
Natsume Sōsekis writing career began when he wrote a short story with the title I of the hangover. This story was so successful that he published in the well-known literary magazine Hototogisu, which was published by his friend Masaoka Shiki. Reader feedback has been very positive, and shortly thereafter he published his novel Botchan a second plant, which in turn earned him a lot of applause, but also criticism. When he had established his reputation as a writer so that he laid down his professorship in 1907 and wrote all day on his novels. He now published every year a novel until his death from stomach cancer in late 1916.
Work
Major themes in Natsume Sōsekis work were the struggles of ordinary people against the economic hardship and the conflict between duty and desire, or contradiction between loyalty and freedom. Furthermore, the rapid industrialization of Japan is described in his books and their consequences for the population. Soseki is characterized here a pessimistic view of human nature. In 1914 he wrote his most famous novel Kokoro (こゝろ). This book is still one of the most important works of modern Japanese literature today. Kokoro can be translated literally as the heart, but also as a soul, thought and Home Affairs ( in contrast to mind).
Natsume Soseki is mapped to 1000 yen bills that have been printed from 1984 to 2004.
Significant work Natsume Sōsekis are: (Not yet translated into the German language novels are given with English titles, unless they consist not only of proper names. )
- I the hangover (1905 ,吾輩は猫である, wa neko de aru Wagahai )
- Tower of London (1905 ,伦敦塔, Rondon -tō )
- The Gate of Tokyo (1906 ,坊っちゃん, Botchan ) 2010 in German language as an eBook published in Angkor Verlag, Frankfurt am Main, translated and with an afterword by Jürgen Berndt, ISBN 9783936018714
- Translated by Jürgen Berndt. In: Dreams of ten nights. Japanese tales of the 20th century. Edited by Eduard Klopfenstein, Theseus Verlag, Munich 1992, p.63 - 85th ISBN 3-85936-057-4
- 2009 in German language published in be.bra verlag, Berlin: Title Sanshirōs ways novel, Translated and with an afterword provided by Christof Langemann
- Translated by Ryoichi Iwako and Rose Takahashi. Kyoto 1943 Doitsu bunka Kenkyusho
- Behind the glass door, Angkor Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2011, translated and with an afterword by Christopher Longman, ISBN 978-3936018806