He came back to his home country in 1903 and became a professor at the Tokyo Imperial University.
He spent about two years of his life in the foreign land where he, unfortunately, lived an unpleasant life of loneliness and poverty. He was sent there by the Japanese government during the year 1900 as the country’s first English literary scholar.
Natsume Soseki also spent some time studying outside of Japan, particularly in the United Kingdom. Two years after, he then taught at the Matsuyama Middle School, which served as the main setting for one of his most popular novels, “Botchan”. He showed great mastery in the language in just a short span of time and was even able to translate the classical piece known as Hojoki into English in 1891.Īfter graduating in 1893, Natsume Soseki enrolled at the Tokyo Normal School to pursue a graduate degree course, while working as a part-time professor. Interestingly, Natsume Soseki first started using his pen name, which means “stubborn” in English, to sign his poems.ĭuring the year 1890, he joined the university’s department of English literature. Masaoka Shiki actively encouraged Natsume Soseki to become a writer and even taught him the fundamentals of composing a Japanese haiku poem. Simultaneously, he started studying the English language in the hopes that it might be useful to his career someday.Ībout three years after, he crossed paths with and befriended Masaoka Shiki, or better known as Masaoka Noboru in the world of Japanese poetry. Unfortunately, the members of his family were not supportive of his budding interest in literature and persuaded him to pursue something he could easily make a living out of.Īs such, he enrolled at the Tokyo Imperial University in 1884 with the goal of becoming an architect in mind. This sense of self-doubt only grew more intense as his mother passed away in 1881.Īs he started attending the First Tokyo Middle School where he was introduced to Chinese literature, he began to feel a sense of hope for himself and his potential of becoming a writer. Not feeling completely accepted by his family, Natsume Soseki grew up to be quite insecure. Natsume Soseki then returned to his own house where his mother warmly welcomed him back, while his father saw him as a nuisance. Having no child of their own, the couple happily raised Natsume Soseki up until they got a divorce about eight years later. In 1868, he was adopted by Shiobara Masanosuke and his wife.
Prior to his birth, his parents already had five children to take care of, which made the addition of Natsume Soseki a source of insecurity and disgrace for the family. Born as Natsume Kinnosuke during the year 1867, Natsume Soseki came into the world as an unwanted child of his 53-year old father and 40-year old mother.
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