Kokoro is told in the first person all the way through. For this reason, the style is intentionally simple. In the original, there is beauty beneath the surface simplicity, especially in the third part. I can only hope that at least a little of the beauty has remained in the translation. I have tried, at any rate, to retain the simplicity.
The best rendering of the Japanese word "kokoro" that I have seen is Lafcadio Hearn's, which is: "the heart of things.
Without the great kindness of the members of the Committee on Social Thought, of The University of Chicago, I could never have done this translation. An unusual book which I really enjoyed, and I would recommend it to readers who do not mind their stories sprinkled with an air of sadness throughout. You certainly don't need to know anything about Japan or Japanese culture to appreciate, and get something profound from this work. Like so many great works of fiction, it appeals to the human in everyone, and asks those questions every human struggles with, about life and death, and the ups and downs of life.
The novel uses concrete character symbolism to depict the tension between tradition and modernity during the Meiji era. Many Japanese people at the time were conflicted between accepting modernity and preserving traditional Japanese values. The story tackles difficult issues and does so with beauty and grace. Interesting to see that issues of coping with family and finding ways to connect with others isn't just a modern day problem. A story about man, I would say, and the struggles with pride and dignity.
This novel is a classic by no mystery. View all 4 comments. Really enjoyed it! Nonetheless, it is one thing to be an outside admirer and another thing to have that blood in your vein. Kokoro is a novel of frustration, fragility, distrust, terror, and hopelessness of the blood the East has in it vein, a reflection on the super "I believe you don't really become a finer person just by reading lots of books" I know a lot of Westerners are obsessed with the East and our civilization, finding its mysterious inconclusiveness attractive in opposition to the somewhat dogmatic West.
Kokoro is a novel of frustration, fragility, distrust, terror, and hopelessness of the blood the East has in it vein, a reflection on the superficial nature of our race hiding behind the appearance of moral grandness. Like in the story passed on through generations, those ascetic heroes who lashed themselves apparently for the sake of spiritual attainment, it is actually the cruelty, foolishness, vanity, and all kinds of superficial forces that drive the hustle and bustle of the shallow yet restless Eastern soul.
I can sense the chill and frustration in Soseki's gentle description of how the Eastern souls are led astray to extremity, epitomized by those individuals who consciously or unconsciously, willingly or unwilling followed Emperor Meji to death. Indeed we don't become a finer person by reading books, by devoting ourselves to a certain occupation, by following any trajectory to its end, as long as the sin in our nature is still sweeping upon our heart and soul.
This is the frustrating message that Soseki sends to me. Nov 21, Michael Finocchiaro rated it really liked it Shelves: japanese-lit , novels , read-in-french , japaneseth-c , fiction. I have mentioned elsewhere that the later Soseki books tend to be darker and more melancholic not to say extremely pessimistic and Kokoro definitely fits this mold. I am NOT taking anything away from the gorgeous language and descriptions here nor the intimate conversations primarily by writing between the protagonist and his Sensei, but it is not something to read if you are down in the dumps.
The narrative devices are original even for Soseki and his mastery of character and betrayal of emotio I have mentioned elsewhere that the later Soseki books tend to be darker and more melancholic not to say extremely pessimistic and Kokoro definitely fits this mold.
The narrative devices are original even for Soseki and his mastery of character and betrayal of emotion is unsurpassed here. A must read especially if you have already appreciated the lighter, younger, more optimistic yet always cynical Soseki of Bothan and I am a Cat. View all 8 comments. Mar 25, E. Shelves: japan , It's not that you've done something wrong! It's that you haven't done anything. The critical moment in this book will seem so familiar to you: you've not done something like it hundreds of times, or realized you were in danger of not doing it.
A conversation must be had. You gotta break up with someone, or tell them you're in love with them. It's scary. You don't do it. These moments don't usually become crucial turning points in your life.
You just move on, maybe a few degrees less happy than y It's not that you've done something wrong! You just move on, maybe a few degrees less happy than you might have been.
But this is what Soseki is getting into, in this landmark Japanese novel from What if that was the crucial moment? What if it changed everything? One senses a certain lack of urgency, one has to admit. He fails to tell his friend that he's even thinking about it. Finally, in the nick of time, he asks the woman - but it's too late, now it seems like a betrayal to his friend, who was also into the woman, and who now commits suicide.
The tragedy poisons Sensei's arid marriage, and he finally decides to put everyone out of his misery and kill himself. In real life it would stop mid-sentence on page two as the recipient lost interest. The letter is to his protege, and what even is he proteging?
Like, what do any of these people do? They do nothing. They're "scholars," which, true, is a thing people legitimately used to say, but not because it wasn't bullshit.
Listen, these are a lot of awfully strong feelings these men are having about each other and not the woman, who's barely a character at all. When the student hears that Sensei is in trouble, he view spoiler [just gets up and walks out of the room his father is dying in, just in case he might be in time to watch Sensei die instead.
This is a deeply weird moment. I can't really get a read on it. Some online research indicates that no one else can either but I'm definitely not the first person to ask the question.
Soseki was the first great novelist of the Meiji Restoration, when Japan sortof opened up to the world and a new era of Japanese novels began. Kokoro is a subtle, anguished book. It opens up this whole aching underground river of memories for me - things I could have said, or said sooner, or said better.
The one sentence that got away. Are there things you should be saying right now to someone? I'm seriously asking! I'm nosy! Tell me about your buried angst! And then maybe go have that talk with that person, before everyone ends up dead. View all 15 comments. This Japanese classic by literary superhero Natsume Soseki is not easy to access for a Westerner of the 21st century, as it subtly deals with perceptions of silence, guilt and loyalty that are deeply connected to Japanese culture.
The novel has three parts: The first two are presented through the perspective of a young student who is adrift in his life and looking for direction which he hopes to receive from an older man whom he calls Sensei. The narrator is in a state of transition: He moved to This Japanese classic by literary superhero Natsume Soseki is not easy to access for a Westerner of the 21st century, as it subtly deals with perceptions of silence, guilt and loyalty that are deeply connected to Japanese culture.
The narrator is in a state of transition: He moved to Tokyo from the countryside and is now ashamed of his roots, he wonders what he should do with his life after graduation, and his father is terminally ill.
At the same time, history is hard at work: The Meji era ends as the Emperor dies, and General Nogi Maresuke kills himself on the day of his master's funeral - out of loyalty and because of an old guilt that has tortured him for years. In this general turmoil, the narrator turns to the enigmatic Sensei, a reclusive man who seems to have no real occupation, but strong opinions on traditional values.
Sensei is married with no children and regularly visits the grave of an old friend without giving away what their connection was. When the narrator travels home to be with his dying father, he receives a confessional letter from Sensei - and that letter makes for the whole second half of the book. Of course Sensei, like General Nogi Maresuke, was plagued by a feeling of guilt connected to his dead friend, and his reclusive lifestyle was a way of self-punishment.
Sensei sees himself as a product of the Meji era, a living relict after the death of the Emperor - but is he, though? And that's what makes this text interesting: Of course it deals with questions of changing customs and mores, with tradition and modernity, but it also shows how the narrator and Sensei two unreliable perspectives! What really attracts the narrator to Sensei? Did Sensei really fail his friend because he has also been failed before? What is morality, what responsibilty?
A great classic by Haruki Murakami's favorite author, complex and deep, but rendered in a quiet, clear language. Apr 08, Mariel rated it it was amazing Recommends it for: when it dies. Kokoro translates to "the heart of things". I only know this because the translator's forward said it was so. I need a translator, from my heart's mind to yours anyone? I am afraid that I will wander around in the dark mental spaces again.
Gray shades of life experiences and emotional not necessarily reality experiences. Who could pick up on the undertones and relevances?
I'm truly afraid that worse than making no sense, I'll be sitting at the feet Muppet babies feet? Peanuts gang feet? Warbled voices of unknowable adult world? Something like that in my open mouthed admiration again. In affection? Most definitely. This affection kept my heart in my mouth when reading Kokoro. That is mine! Does anyone in my life ever understand that about me? I only hope It feels wretched when I don't make sense. It is hopeless when I reflect cold.
It's a lonely and reserved affection. I AM going to make no sense again. I related tight rope walking style once again to the great divide in humanity and loneliness.
The young student who sees in his Sensei a value of life experiences damn it it is much, much more than that to him. A lifeline? A tugged line across various life shit. The best part is not holding it alone. Sensei who has willfully lived as dead for a long time from a past betrayal to himself and his friend he deliberately severed another tugged line, in a sense. Over a girl. Try to make real book sense for a change, Mariel!
Willfully, not willingly. The resolve earlier made would have spared not saved him from a lifetime of suspended mental hell. The worst kind because company couldn't change the fact that your own company is unendurable. Not his student's well, of a sort affection in loneliness. Kokoro hit me hard because, well, I'm in both of those times all of my time. I believe in this "heart of things" because it is that watching and reaching out affection of lonely connections of the student to the sensei The not being pushed away, no matter the pushing, future and life shit that could just at the wrong twist of fate and time break the tenous hold.
Lines are so damned hard to keep up. I really didn't expect to read this love behind all of this. I needed it. Now I wish I could ever be as sure as the student that these feelings and experiences give the good kind of heavy weight on the balance of that damned tight rope of depression and doubts I have the affection I don't have the surety. Here are some passages that I marked off for myself. I do not want your admiration now, because I do not want your insults in the future.
I bear with my loneliness now, in order to avoid greater loneliness in the years ahead. You see, loneliness is the price we have to pay for being born in this modern age, so full of freedom, independence, and our own egotistical selves.
Even I've got 'em I shall never forget this. When my father was alive, they behaved like decent people. But as soon as he died they turned into scroundrels. The effect of the injury that they did me in my youth is with me still.
It will be with me, I suppose, until I die. What they did to me I shall remember so long as I live. But I have never taken my revenge on them. When I think about it, I have done something much worse than that. I have come to hate not only them, but the human race in general. That is quite enough, I think. I didn't think what his Uncle and family did stealing his inheritance was as shocking as all that. It was his own betrayal that killed. I don't care what Sensei says. I am not much of a thinker, but the few ideas that I do have, I have no wish to hide from others.
I have no reason to. But if you are suggesting that I should tell you all about my past- well, that's another matter entirely. I value your opinions because they are the results of your experience. Your opinions would be worthless otherwise.
They would be like soulless dolls. Like I had no right to. Why am I admitting this? I felt that as the spirit of the Meiji era had begun with him, so it had ended with his death. Sensei is part of a generation that accepts modernity while struggling to keep traditional values.
He is not connected to the Emperor, but rather to the Meiji era itself. Sensei compares himself to the spirit of the Meiji era, a time in which modernity was desired, but traditional values were somewhat restored. Kokoro is a novel that uses concrete character symbolism to depict the tension between tradition and modernity during the Meiji era. This novel focuses on the attitudes of many Japanese people at the time that were conflicted between accepting modernity and preserving traditional Japanese values.
Great article! Have you read "The Autobiography of Yukichi Fukuzawa? I read it last semester and found him wonderfully enigmatic and ahead of his time. I followed you :D.
I just finished a few Japanese novels and in each of them, there is this conflict between tradition and modernity. It looks like this is constantly felt in Japan. Fascinating analysis. I believe America is currently experiencing a similar form of fear in the face of a changing world. Thanks for sharing. BrittanyTodd: Thank you for such a cogent, intelligent analysis of this important novel. Your points and your supporting evidence are compelling, fascinating and persuasive.
Marine Biology. Electrical Engineering. I get along with Sensei, but Sensei does not open his heart because of the secret. The secret is that Sensei betrayed his best friend "K" and K did away with himself. Sensei writes a suicide note which says his secret and die by his own hand. Most Japanese have read Kokoro because it appears in school text books.
Many Japanese literature teachers teach a struggle between friendship and egoism by extracting a passage from it in class. The reason of Sensei's suicide tends to be expiation or atonement in class. Many people also think Sensei kills himself in compensation for K's death after reading Kokoro.
However, Sensei says the reason of suicide is losing spirit of Meiji era. It is said that spirit of Meiji era is feudal morality or Confucian ethics.
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