The central question that I am asking is what issues on modernity and tradition did Soseki write about and was Soseki more inclined to the traditional side or modern side. Natsume Soseki is commonly referred by his given name (or rather pen name), Soseki, so searching for “Soseki” in DfR of JSTOR collections is more accurate. In 1907, Soseki rejected his professorship and started to work for Asahi newspaper, where most of his works were published. Between 19, he wrote fifteen novels, including one unfinished. In his works, he mainly focused on the pain and solitude that modernity brought to Japanese. He was aware of the superficiality of Japanese westernization and aimless imitation of the west. Soseki became mad in London, and started to question the idea of modernity. The Japanese government sent him to study in England from 1901 to 1903, but this became his most unpleasant years. Therefore, he became a scholar in English literature. He loved Chinese literature, but studying English was a fashion at his time. Natsume Soseki, born in 1867, the year before the Meiji Restoration, was a Japanese author whose works characterized the perplexity of Japanese during the era of rapid westernization. A Short Introduction of Natsume Soseki Soseki’s Portrait on the old version of Japanese 1000 yen note
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