The heart of things

This week I finished reading “Kokoro” by Soseki Natsume.  I have heard that most Japanese students study this book in high school.  So I suspect that many people will be intimately familiar with the story.

But it is not so well known in Britain.  So let me first summarise the story.  The title means “heart” but also suggests other meanings such as inner feelings or the true nature of things.

The book was written in 1914 and is set in that period, the end of the Meiji Era.  That was the era which saw the modernisation of Japan.  The book follows the relationship between the narrator, a young university student, and an older man, who lives virtually as a recluse in Tokyo with his wife.

The older man, whom the student respectfully calls “Sensei”, over the course of the book reveals the reason for his withdrawal from human society, including feelings of guilt over an incident in a complicated love-triangle and his inability to come to terms with the new modern Japan.

As a psychological study of human nature and isolation it was very interesting.  The characters are constantly misunderstanding one another and even themselves.  They are contradictory and often show completely conflicting desires.  As a small example, the narrators’ parents are desperate to see their son and urge him to come back from university.  After the first few days, they get annoyed with having him there and wish he would leave.  When he decides to go back to Tokyo, however, they ask him to stay longer.  The complexity of the human mind, which pushes and pulls in different directions at the same time, and can never be fully understood by others is brilliantly explored.

I must admit that I did also get a bit annoyed by the character of Sensei, however.  He had grown up influenced not just by the modern Japan, but the older values as well.  Every relationship he had was strictly governed by rules, ritual and obligation.  He gave advice to his friend K, and felt completely bound by an obligation to help him at great cost to himself because the advice brought some difficulties.  He delays declaring his love for someone for a number of reasons, including fears that it might cause him embarrassment or was not correct according to custom.

As a modern, selfish man brought up in an individualistic culture, I kept thinking, “Just do it!  Stop worrying so much about what other people think!” or similar thoughts.  If old Japan was really as strict as Sensei shows it to be, then it must have been a hard place to live.

Actually, it’s not always that easy even now...
 

Vocabulary:

to be intimately familiar with something – To know something extremely well.
virtually – Almost entirely.

a recluse – Someone who lives completely apart from other people.

a love-triangle – When two people love the same person, it is a love-triangle.

to come to terms with something – To accept something; to be able to deal with something.

psychological – To do with the way people think.

isolation – Being alone.

to be contradictory – To contain two opposites.  For example, “I like cats but I don’t like cats”, is a contradictory statement.

conflicting – Opposite or not in agreement.

to urge someone to do something – To strongly encourage someone to do something.

complexity – Being complex; the opposite of simplicity.

ritual – A ceremony, or a traditional, formal action.

obligation – A responsibility to do something.  For example, “He helped me, so I have an obligation to help him in return.”

to be bound – To be unable to move; to be tied up.