Soseki Natsume’s “I Am a Cat” A comedy-drama that transcended the time and countries

Soseki Natume was born on February 9, 1867, in Ushigome Babashita, Edo (present-day Kikuicho, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo). On October 14 of the same year, Taisei Hokan (Restoration of Imperial Rule ) took place. Japan was in the midst of the Meiji Revolution as the era shifted from Edo to Meiji. That was more than 150 years ago.

I Am a Cat was Soseki Natsume’s first novel, written when he was 40 years old. Part one was first published in the January issue of the haiku magazine Hototogisu in Meiji 38 (1905). The novel was concluded with part eleven in the August issue of Hototogisu in Meiji 39 (1906).

Homework Assignment For A First-Year Junior High School Student

The first time I came across I Am a Cat was in the 1980s, more than 70 years after it was published. I was a first-year junior high school student then, and I had a book report to do. I remembered that my homeroom teacher once said that when she read I Am a Cat for the first time, “It was so interesting and entertaining that I was hooked on reading through,” so I decided to read it myself. I read it with high expectations, but the results were far from what I expected.

Frankly, it was difficult to read. I had a hard time reading even a single page. I wondered why it was written with so many difficult words. Anyway, it was time-consuming, and that was the problem. My assignment was to turn in a book report, not just to finish reading a book. 

As I started to panic, then, I decided to check out the commentator’s comments at the back of the book. Unfortunately, the commentator wrote only a standard comment about this book, such as “This book portrays human society humorously depicted through the eyes of a cat.” Even I knew that writing a similar comment would only reveal that I had copied, and I thought that would not be interesting at all. So, I had no choice but to confess that I could not read the book myself.

“I started reading the book thinking it would be such an interesting and fun book, but there were many words that I could not read, and the content was difficult, so I had a hard time moving forward. I could not get to the point where people said the book was so funny. Perhaps in the future, I will be able to read it. I really want to be able to read it.”

I put down these sentences as some excuse on paper. Then, I turned it in as my report for the time being. Since I had not finished reading the book, I was worried that it would not be considered a book report. Nevertheless, I turned it in anyway, pretending I had written down my impressions of reading the book. 

To my surprise, my homeroom teacher praised my book report. She said, “It’s wonderful that you expressed your thoughts like that. Don’t forget how you felt at that moment.” At that time, rather than being praised, I felt more relieved because I thought I had managed to get through it. At the same time, however, I began to feel a desire to someday read through I Am a Cat and be able to understand its contents.

Third Time’s a Charm

Years later, after becoming a working adult, I finally decided to try reading I Am a Cat again, which I had been unable to do when I was in junior high school. Unfortunately, the result was the same. I could not pass the same point in the book. I could not follow the stories. Now that I think about it, I was trying to do everything quickly at that time, so I thought reading quickly was a good thing to do when it came to reading books as well. The hastiness is the state of mind that immature people often fall into. It wasn’t until years later that I came to realize that I had to take the time to read this book carefully.

Time has passed, and only recently I began to feel a desire to read I Am a Cat again. It was after I turned 50 years old. I thought to myself, “Third time’s a charm.” But this time, I had a change of heart and decided to take my time and read it carefully. It did not matter how long it took to read it; I wanted to understand its contents.

As I read the book more carefully, I found myself gradually getting into the text. By this time, my reading comprehension had improved a little as compared to before, and my ability to understand the historical background may have also improved. It may also be because I had become interested a little in Japan around the time of the Meiji Restoration, the era in which Soseki Natsume spent his life. And whenever familiar areas such as Ushigome or  Kanda appeared in the story, it was interesting to read it while imagining what Japan was like then compared to now. It was the first moment I thought it was “interesting” ever since I started reading I Am a Cat.

I kept reading the book, thinking it was interesting, but gradually, I realized something was not quite right. The reason was that the story often veered sideways, and there was no such thing as a coherent storyline, which is usually found in full-length novels, that continued from the first to the last chapter. Also, each chapter was written as if it were a complete and independent story, but it did not have a beginning, development, turn, or conclusion, and it seemed like the story ended just as it happened. I felt something not quite right. 

Rather than a story, the book was written like a daily diary of events that happened around us. To be honest, I doubted if this was really a masterpiece of modern Japanese literature. But then I remembered a TV show that I used to watch in the U.S. in the past. It was a TV show called Seinfeld, which became an unprecedented hit in the U.S. in the 1990s.

An American Comedy-Drama Show

Seinfeld was a national comedy-drama TV show that ran for about nine years. It was called a “sitcom,” a situation comedy-drama set in New York City. At that time, Seinfeld was the talk of the town in the U.S. the day after it aired every week. 

The main characters were Jerry, George, Elaine, and Kramer, a quartet of three men and a woman in their 30s, with various other characters appearing frequently. It is a one-episode serial drama set in New York City, centered on the New York apartment where the main character, Jerry, lives.

Seinfeld’s concept of making a comedy-drama out of the “ordinary daily life” of “characters who could be anywhere” was innovative then, but I think it was a difficult concept to make into a TV show. 

First, since this is a comedy-drama, the characters of the “characters who could be anywhere” are essential. Each character is unique and has their own unique sense of humor. Each of them has their own unique worldview, which in some cases exceeds that of the main character. Yet, the exquisite human relationships that perfectly match the roles of the four characters are beautifully portrayed in each episode.

Second, turning “ordinary daily life” into a comedy-drama depends on how one finds the humor hidden in everyday life. Finding hidden humor requires sharply observing our human nature, relationships with others, and human patterns woven by those nature and relationships that emerge from everyday events that happen by chance, as well as incidents that people do intentionally. By revealing hidden humor, we would be able to depict our human society as a comedy-drama.

And then I thought. Was the same concept used in I am a Cat also?

Seinfeld and Kushami Sensei

Seinfeld is an American TV show that aired in the 1990s. I Am a Cat is a Japanese novel completed in 1906. 

The main characters in I Am a Cat are: “I,” the main character’s cat, which has no name, “Kushami Sensei,” the owner of “I,” “Meitei,” a friend of Kushami Sensei, “Kangetsu,” a former student of Kushami Sensei, and many other characters. It is a serial novel set in Tokyo, centering on Kushami Sensei’s study. 

The main difference from Seinfeld is that both “I” and Kushami Sensei are written as the main characters. However, I think the concept of turning “ordinary daily life” into a comedy-drama is a common theme.

The moment that I realized that the same concept was used in a Japanese novel written more than 80 years before Seinfeld was aired in the U.S., I felt my previous sense of unease about I Am a Cat disappear. I gradually began to understand why it is considered a masterpiece of Modern Japanese Literature. 

Perhaps I Am a Cat may be Japan’s first original comedy-drama to use a Western sense of humor. If so, this means that more than 110 years ago, there was already a Japanese person in Tokyo who had a Western sense of humor and wrote novels in Japanese using that Western humor. 

Once again, I became deeply interested in a person named Soseki Natsume.

Soseki’s Sensibilities

Soseki Natsume was born more than 150 years ago and later completed his serial novel I Am a Cat at the age of 40. But, how was Soseki’s Western sense of humor formed more than a century ago, when Japan was still struggling to catch up with the Western world in the Meiji era?

There is no doubt that Soseki’s command of Japanese and English was an essential factor in getting to this point. However, more than a high level of language ability is needed to form a Western sense, much less a sense of humor. I believe that Soseki’s natural sensibilities and language skills were the basis for developing his Western sensibilities and humor, which he could further translate into Japanese novels. 

Soseki was born with outstanding sensibilities, “the abilities to perceive the nature of things sensitively and to express their subtle and unique impressions and nuances.” Soseki’s innate sensibilities were probably first noticed by Shiki Masaoka, an alumnus of the First Higher Junior High School (later to become Ichiko), which Soseki attended. When Soseki was about 23 years old, Shiki Masaoka, who was trying to publish Chinese poetry, waka poetry, haiku, and novels, knew that Soseki excelled in English but was surprised to learn that he excelled in Chinese Literature and Chinese Poetry.

Writing “poetry” differs from writing simple sentences because it requires the writer’s sensibility and artistic sense. Therefore, Shiki must have learned of Soseki’s superior sensibilities through Chinese literature and poetry. Because it was him, Shiki Masaoka, he may have been able to learn about Soseki’s sensibilities and discover Soseki’s potential. Since then, the friendship between Soseki and Shiki lasted until Shiki’s death.

Soseki, a man of outstanding sensibility, may have also been a man of extreme nervousness. Superior sensibility also makes the nerves extremely sensitive, which may be the case with a double-edged sword. Soseki was said to be fond of humor, a rakugo (traditional comic storytelling) fan, and a master of round-table storytelling (zadan). Perhaps he enjoyed the humor, listening to rakugo, and engaging in round-table storytelling to entertain himself and soothe his mind to escape from the mental anguish caused by his overactive nerves. These activities may have been what we now commonly call therapy today. 

I wonder if the writing of I Am a Cat was also a part of Soseki’s therapy.

From England to Japan

In Meiji 33 (1900), Soseki went to England to study and returned to Japan three years later in Meiji 36 (1903).

Perhaps because he wanted to write novels in English later, Soseki read so many books while studying in England. The British novels he read during this period may have become the basis for the development of Soseki’s unique sense of humor. 

After returning to Japan, Soseki wrote a novel that resembles a one-episode Western TV series in present times. Publishing I Am a Cat in Japan could mean that the British sense of humor that Soseki acquired while studying in England was introduced to Japan in his writing. At that time, there was probably no other writer in Japan who could use a Western sense of humor instead of a Japanese sense of comedy.

It has been nearly 120 years since Soseki published I Am a Cat, but his humor still makes readers laugh as if Soseki speaks to us beyond time.

Soseki Natsume, I am a Cat Commentary by Ito Sei, Shincho Bunko.