Natsume Sōseki (/ˈsoʊsɛki/; Japanese: 夏目 漱石; born Natsume Kinnosuke (夏目 金之助); 9 February 1867 – 9 December 1916) was a Japanese novelist, poet, and scholar. He is considered one of the greatest writers in modern Japanese history and is often called the first modern novelist of Japan. Sōseki's fiction explored themes of individualism, loneliness, and the conflict between traditional Japanese values and the rapid Westernization of the Meiji era. His major works include I Am a Cat (1905), Botchan (1906), Sanshirō (1908), Kokoro (1914), and his unfinished final novel Light and Dark (1916).
Born on the cusp of the Meiji Restoration, Sōseki had a turbulent childhood, having been given up for adoption twice. He graduated from Tokyo Imperial University and became a scholar of English literature. In 1900, he was sent by the Japanese government to study in London, where he spent two miserable years marked by poverty, racial alienation, and a severe nervous breakdown. Upon his return to Japan, he succeeded Lafcadio Hearn as a lecturer in English literature at Tokyo Imperial University. In 1905, he achieved fame with the publication of the satirical novel I Am a Cat. This success prompted him to begin a prolific writing career, and in 1907, he resigned from his university post to become a full-time author for the Asahi Shimbun newspaper, a move that marked the birth of the professional artist in modern Japan.
