The last Meiji emperor died (1912) and his right-hand military man General Nogi Maresuke commits ritual suicide. Meanwhile traumatic events have happened in Japan. He turns down his family’s urgings to settle down and marry a cousin. Despite his mother’s urgings and dying father’s pleas for him to get a job, the young man seems to want to emulate his sensei and do nothing. Years go by as the young man graduates from college. The second part of the story focuses on the young man’s home life. He warns the young man that when he hears his story his admiration of the old man will turn to disdain and disillusionment. But he promises the young man that he will tell him the story when the time is right. Who that deceased person is becomes the key to the story. His only activity is making a monthly visit a grave at a local cemetery. Sensei has no real friends other than the young man. He seems to be a scholar but doesn’t read or write, he just “hangs out.” The interesting thing about the “wise” old man is that he does nothing. Over time he develops a strong admiration for him, visiting at his home and calling him Sensei. With a beautifully designed cover and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of Natsume Sōseki's Kokoro is a classic work of Japanese literature reimagined for modern readers.The main character is a young man, a college student, who meets an older man at a beach resort. Eminently human, Kokoro is a beloved story of isolation, morality, and conflict from a master of Japanese fiction. As one era merges into the next, he reads of the suffering and mistakes his Sensei experienced and incurred on his path through life, drawing them closer and leaving the narrator with some wisdom to remember him by. As his father prepares to leave the mortal world, the narrator receives a lengthy letter from Tokyo, containing his Sensei's story within. As he tries to remain positive around so much sorrow, he begins to miss his Sensei, who is now getting old himself. When his father falls ill-around the time of the end of Meiji society-the narrator returns home to be closer to his family. As the years go by, the narrator becomes aware of a secret from Sensei's past, which his mentor promises to reveal when the time is right. Soon, he begins visiting Sensei and his wife at their home in Tokyo, where they live an affluent, simple life. On vacation with a friend, the narrator meets an older man who becomes a patient mentor for the young student. Tradition and change, life and death-such are the subjects of Sōseki's masterful, understated tale of unassuaged guilt.
Spanning generations, Kokoro is a classic novel from one of Japan's most successful twentieth century writers. Set during a period of modernization in Japan, Kokoro is a story of family, faith, and tragedy that explores timeless themes of isolation and identity. Kokoro (1914) is a novel by Natsume Sōseki.
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