"Kokoro" (こころ) by Natsume Soseki (夏目 漱石)

Natsume Soseki is a master of his kind, he is a genius, a novelist whose works will always be ahead of Our time.  He is often called The Father of Modernism in Japan, post-War Japan. He was born in Samurai family, not noble one, rather of a minor origin, yet, still influential. He was born when his parents were in their forties, and mid-forties, they loved him of sort of, but, decided to give him to foster family, to the childless couple. He had rather rough childhood, harsh father, his mother died when he was fourteen. The period he grew up was a period of great transformations in Japan, the period when Japan started opening its culture to the West. He studied at Tokyo Imperial University, he was a very good student, thorough and ambitious, maybe it caused some of his breakdowns. He spent in England two years, he was very homesick, yet, he wrote, read customs of western and eastern worlds, so different and so magnetizing one another. It filled his time and mastered his new literary genre. He mastered the professor degree and became a professor of English literature at Tokyo Imperial University. In 1908 He published “Ten Nights of Dream” a Japanese fantasy story.

His most important works follows “Sanshiro”, “Kofu”, “Nowaki”, “Kokoro”, “Meiam”, “Hototogisu”.

All his novels are very imaginary. Reader images the reading passage, the descriptions are so rich in adjectives, we see what we read. The picturesque image of the novel enriches the imagination, the perception and understanding, while reading, the reader is having almost a magical description of characters, which by no means, sometimes, should not be glorified by romance due to their devilish demeanor. He presents images, he doesn't write! Therefore his books are full of metaphorical notions, if reader wants to know what the plot tells about, he has to imagine it and read a bit between the lines, the success is guaranteed. Symbols are everywhere; it might be dark forest which stands for Satan, evil forces, dark matter, which is destructive and symbolizes the dark future or it lack.  The mythical and mythological themes enrich the book and give it a profound character, Ming-dynasty, for instance, represents the untouched history, the individuality, which is an opposed to industrialization, which, fortunately or not means progression, destruction of nature, destruction of human capacity, mind and leads to emotional emptiness.

Emotions are destructive, in Japanese culture there is one, very strong one, which overwhelms the human mind and the human body, it is guilt. What marks man as a sinful, ungrateful and imperfect creature is guilt, feeling guilty is similar to small agony, it must be accepted or taken, but when it is taken, it bites out deep into the soul, into the heart. Self-consciousness is the way out, provided that, the egoism each of us rejects but glorifies doesn't overtake the intentions. As was mentioned before he was a very thorough man and his pieces of work were created by nine futures; so-called “projective association”- it was descriptive reality its inner manner or rather inner matter, which made it almost surreal, “introjective association”- he uses symbolic Japanese language to describe the core of the matter, the image is a description, the image is a letter, sound, a notion, self-description, pun, harmonious comparison of concepts and problems, imagination, “acceleration”- build up or slowing down the tension and plat pace, “pesudocontrast”- stands for generation the mood, shaping the mood to the particular circumstantial situation, “noncontrast”- contrast of contradictions, two opposite moods, to achieve the balance and harmony.

His literature is having a didactic function, he was a very serious person, he treated writing as a very strong tool to reach to people of all sorts, therefore his novels are still read by wide range of audience. His novels were printed in Japanese newspapers, were diverse and understood by everyone, with no hint of sophistication, because he believed the sophistication is in the ways the image speaks out, it doesn't lay in the language. His literature was about to entertain, it has to be a light reading. The pleasure of reading made him earn money, more and more people were curious to find out, what new character encounters, what new ideas, problems, affairs and guilty-conscious he is having. His novels often present romance, the characters are idealistic, very unhappy, very distinctive and very condemn to the faith they have to face with, namely, they sacrifice everything they have in the name of something so much transcendent and ethereal as love. His characters are violent, they trust their basic instincts and they ignore the moral standards, the norms of behavior they are expected to follow.

“KOKORO”

It is a fictional novel, it presents the traditional Japanese customs and traditions,  the book is controversial it presents the relation of two men, a young student starts an affair with a man. The plot takes  place in a very complex time in Japan, time of many changes, time of Modern Japan. It is very symbolical novel, the symbols explain the transformation of a young boy and his lover, the symbols explain the modernism that starts determining human way of living, thinking, perceiving reality, the symbols also shows the destruction the modernism is about to bring.

The Meji Era is declining, which was characterized by federalization and samurai, there was no influence of western studies, it was only study of Buddha and contemplation.

The tradition and modernism are in constant contrast and conflict, the character feels he doesn't belong to any era, he is astride between the tradition and modernism, he is lost in times of great transformation. He uses new things as chopsticks but misses what is traditional and familiar to him. The changes are everywhere in culture, fashion, transportation, the streetcars are omnipresent,  they are very important symbols of development, advancement, therefore they stand for fear, people were afraid of new ‘gadgets”- unknown object that started to ease their daily lives.

Sensei is very sensitive, he feels everything, he precepts everything,   he is utterly unhappy and broken down when his best friend committed suicide. His friend was heart-broken, he was lovesick and when he realized the love is just a dream he didn't accept the reality, moreover, he wanted a traditional simple way of life, instead, he had to struggle with more and more innovative innovations he didn't understand, had no need to use in daily life, the fast moving changes made him depressed, all what was happening made him depressed.

The books I very emotional and sad, it symbolizes the decline of most basic values in the name of change, modernism took the tradition, it replaced it with innovation, technique and machines, people stopped being needed, their craftsmanship was no longer acknowledged,  time sped up. Modern Japan has been born.