How to read "Kokoro" by Soseki Natsume (2)
Shizu" and "General Nogi".
I'm sure it's unavoidable if you're a junior high school student, but if you're a senior high school student, or even a university student, you can't write a book report without knowing what "Shizu" and "General Nogi" are. You can write about them, but you have to do so in a reserved, reluctant, and embarrassed manner. You don't have to be embarrassed by presenting your work in a very dignified manner. If you have Japanese history as one of your exam subjects, it is natural that even modern people know about General Nogi. In addition, nowadays, you can search for anything with a right click, so it is natural to know that the name "Shizu" comes from "General Nogi".
For more information on General Nogi's wife, Shizuko, you can read a number of free resources on Japan Search.
As you read these documents, you will understand that the term "martyrdom" was received with great surprise at the time. In "Kokoro," Shizu utters the word "martyrdom" before the funeral of General Nogi.
When Mori Ogai heard the news of the martyrdom of General and Mrs. Nogi, he became "half-convinced and half-doubting. This "half-doubt" can be taken as "the pros and cons of taking a wife on the road" in the novels that follow. I have written more about Ogai in this book.
Martyrdom" is something that is permitted by the lord, and not something like Yukio Mishima's "Mukoku". Soseki was also troubled by this. Of course, he left Shizu behind. In a sense, "Kokoro" is a story of his exaggerated death and leaving behind Shizu.
I leave behind my wife. I am happy that she will not have to worry about food, clothing, or shelter when I am gone. I don't like to give my wife cruel scares. I am going to die without showing her the color of my blood. I will secretly disappear from the world without her knowledge. After I die, I want her to think that I have died of natural causes. I'm happy if she thinks I'm crazy. (Soseki Natsume, "Kokoro")
It seems as if you are criticizing General Nogi for stabbing his wife to death.
Soseki briefly mentions General Nogi's martyrdom twice in his diary.
General Nogi's death. General Nogi's wife.
(From The Complete Works of Soseki, Vol. 21, by Soseki Natsume, Iwanami Shoten, 2018, p. 42. From Soseki's Complete Works)
General Nogi's affairs.
Is this a sin or a sacred thing?
(From The Complete Works of Soseki, Vol. 21, by Soseki Natsume, Iwanami Shoten, 2018, p. 42 8) From 8)
Both times, the expression is so simple that it is difficult to fully grasp its meaning. It is difficult to grasp the full meaning of these two simple expressions, but it is clear that he is not praising them out of hand. The professor took the trouble to read General Nogi's will. Have you read General Nogi's last will and testament?
Soseki is instructing everyone to read the letter of testament. I'm sure you've read it, but I'm not sure if you've read it. This is not something that a serious adult would do. General Nogi's last will and testament says, "I leave the right and other details to Shizuko," and it's written on the premise that Shizuko will survive, leaving the Nakano family's affairs to her thoughts. The teacher does not say anything about it. She doesn't say anything about it, but it's clear that the reader is being passed information that something is wrong. If you don't catch that, you are not a reader.
"Your mother is surprised. She is surprised that you don't reply to her or return the box when she brings you hagi (bush clover). You should come if you like, even for a little while. It's not like there's a sudden reason why you can't come.
I made no reply. (Soseki Natsume, "Gyojin")
This restrained theatricality is the manner of Soseki. Here, "What? Wasn't that from the sister-in-law's village? It's a monkey show. In Soseki's works that are not monkey shows, he does not make the teacher say, "Is this sin or holiness? In fact, he ignores Shizuko. One of the reasons why Soseki doesn't kill Shizuko is because he names his wife "Shizu".
Again, I don't like to embellish my work by bringing in extraneous things from outside the work itself. But we have to be aware of the fact that Soseki goes out of his way to contrast General Nogi with his teacher. So I have to at least glance at what General Nogi did with Shizuko. People back then only needed to read the newspapers again. Nowadays, people can just look it up on the Internet. There are still things that we are not aware of, so please become a premium member of Amazon.com and read my book for free.
Doubts over the interpretation of "Kokoro" by Takashi Asada.
http://www.ritsumei.ac.jp/acd/cg/lt/jl/ronkyuoa/AN0025722X-065_001.pdf
I don't understand the logic behind the publication of my memoirs. I don't understand the logic of publishing my memoirs, and I don't know where I stand.
The existence of "I" in "Kokoro" by Soseki Natsume
http://rp-kumakendai.pu-kumamoto.ac.jp/dspace/bitstream/123456789/1804/1/5906_rikihisa_87_103.pdf
I'm sure you'll be able to understand why I'm so special.
https://www.nhk.or.jp/kokokoza/radio/r2_genbun/archive/20_genbun_35_42_a.pdf
https://gair.media.gunma-u.ac.jp/dspace/bitstream/10087/2400/1/KJ00004243348.pdf
I guess this is roughly the current position of "Kokoro" theory.
In the end, they are muddling through, unable to understand the position of "I" and what it means that "I" am writing a memoir. Yoichi Komori is one step closer. And he hasn't reached the meaning of the name "stillness. Some of these people seem to be floundering around in Chiaki Ishihara's papers, which means that they don't understand Chiaki Ishihara either.
This means that none of them have been able to find out the meaning of the name Shizu.
At the time when "Kokoro" was written, the teacher was already dead, but Shizu was still alive. General Nogi killed Shizuko, but Sensei did not kill Shizu.
This is too general, but if you don't grasp the major structure and the rough plot, you won't understand the work, so you have to grasp the surprise when the word "martyrdom" is formed from Shizu's mouth.
I had almost forgotten the word "martyrdom. I had almost forgotten the word "martyrdom," and since I never had to use it in my life, I guess it had sunk to the bottom of my memory, almost rotting away. It was only when I heard my wife laughing that I remembered it, and I said to her that if I were to die a martyr, I would do so in the spirit of the Meiji era. My answer was of course only a laughing matter, but at that moment I felt as if I had given new meaning to an old and unnecessary phrase. (Soseki Natsume, "Kokoro")
I felt as if I could give new meaning to an old unnecessary word. I have to take a big stance on this feeling. I felt as if I had given new meaning to an old, unnecessary word.
Long live the Emperor! This is the cry. Until yesterday, it was old. Not just old, but a fraud. But today, it is the most recent free thought. (Osamu Dazai, "Fifteen Years")
...is the same strong irony. It is interesting because Yukio Mishima imitates this. It is interesting to read only Yukio Mishima, but Japanese literature is really interesting if you start reading again from Soseki and Ogai.
Also, don't be foolish enough to write "the spirit of Meiji" as "the various possibilities that the Meiji era had. The "spirit of the Meiji era" is a phrase that is used only twice in the story. In the other place, it clearly says
Then, in the heat of summer, the Emperor Meiji passed away. At that time, I felt that the spirit of the Meiji era began and ended with the emperor. (Soseki Natsume, "Kokoro")
If I were to write "the spirit of the Meiji era" as "the various possibilities that the Meiji era had," I would be confessing that my memory would not last a minute. If you are such a person, neither literary criticism nor book reports are for you. If literary criticism and book reports are not just about eccentricity, then I guess that's the logic. You have to look at the bigger picture, and you have to get the meaning of each word right. We must not divide the work without permission, and we must not play with the spirit of the Meiji era like a big joke. The Meiji era is a hastily constructed lie with a young emperor and an ancient temple that was excavated from the Imperial Palace of Emperor Kammu as if it were too late. These are the three halls of the palace. It is, after all, an uncertain thing guaranteed by the Emperor. The Meiji ideology is repeating in forty years the three hundred years of activities that have appeared in the history of the West. It is a hasty arrangement. From one side of the unpredictable heavens, a sudden and complex development of twenty-three different degrees appeared and suddenly struck us. This unnaturalness is the Meiji era. It was as if we had been kidnapped by the Tengu.
It is said that when the British Prince of Heaven went to visit India and shared a table with the royal family of India, the royal family, unaware that he was in front of the Prince of Heaven, took a potato from his plate with their own hands, and when he later became red with shame, the Prince of Heaven made an indifferent face and took the potato from his plate with two fingers. ...... (Soseki Natsume, "I am a cat")
Soseki, who took the liberty of making the king of England a natural son, seems to be meaner than Yukio Mishima, who sent the crown prince of Thailand to study in Japan and treated him as an ordinary person (Sea of Fertility). When the Emperor Meiji came to power, the Koreans protested against the use of the Chinese character for "Emperor," which until then had been used only by Chinese emperors. Nowadays, it is difficult to understand such things, but for Natsume Soseki, the old tono-sama was much more important than the emperor.
Even today, I would not approach an emperor unnecessarily. I don't have an audience with him yet, but in the past, there were many people of a higher class than the current Emperor who were more difficult to approach. It would be very unusual for a commoner to even exchange words with the lord of a country. They would sit on the ground on their knees, bowing their heads, and when the palanquin would pass by, they would not be able to look around to see what kind of people were there. It is said that they could not even tell whether there was a monster or a human being in the palanquin. In this way, different classes meant different kinds of people, and the social system was such that there was no room for wondering what kind of people existed in the world. Therefore, there must have been a notion somewhere that there were unexpectedly great people in the world, i.e., exemplary loyal subjects, filial piety, and others. (Soseki Natsume, "Literature and Morality")
This is not the case now, Soseki is saying. I think there are a lot of people who do not check Soseki's view of the emperor and write whatever they want to write, just based on their own thoughts. You have to make sure that your view of the emperor is different from Soseki's view of the emperor. If you are going to write that K is Hokumura Torukiya, you must do so with evidence.
K is not a family name.
I'm sorry if I made anyone uncomfortable.
However, I am not perverting the work for the purpose of making anyone uncomfortable. It's just that it's a shame that the works of a great writer like Soseki Natsume have been so cruelly misread, and I'm seriously writing this in the hope that the correct interpretation will somehow spread while I'm still alive. In order to do so, I have to write a few harsh things.
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