KOKORO

Kokoro - The novel Kokoro by Natsume Soseki is probably the most famous modern Japanese novel. It is often
taken as reflecting the Japanese experience as Japan moved through the long period known as Meiji (1868-
1912). It was written immediately after the end of the Meiji Period and discusses in the selection you read the
death of Emperor Meiji. As Chapter Nine discusses, when the Emperor Meiji died in 1912 there was a sense
that an important era had come to a close.
In your written assignment discuss how the conclusion to the novel illustrates both the significance of this
period in history, and, as Chapter Nine uses in its title, the discontent that Japan might have felt as it was being
seen as a modern nation-state (competing with countries like Germany, Russia, England, France and the
United States)?