WRITER

Natsume Sōseki

1867 - 1916

Photo of Natsume Sōseki

Icon of person Natsume Sōseki

Natsume Sōseki (; Japanese: 夏目 漱石; born Natsume Kinnosuke (夏目 金之助); 9 February 1867 – 9 December 1916) was a Japanese novelist, poet, and scholar. He is considered one of the greatest writers in modern Japanese history and is often called the first modern novelist of Japan. Sōseki's fiction explored themes of individualism, loneliness, and the conflict between traditional Japanese values and the rapid Westernization of the Meiji era. His major works include I Am a Cat (1905), Botchan (1906), Sanshirō (1908), Kokoro (1914), and his unfinished final novel Light and Dark (1916). Read more on Wikipedia

His biography is available in 53 different languages on Wikipedia. Natsume Sōseki is the 499th most popular writer (down from 476th in 2024), the 59th most popular biography from Japan (up from 63rd in 2019) and the 10th most popular Japanese Writer.

Natsume Sōseki is most famous for his novels "I Am a Cat" and "Botchan."

Memorability Metrics

Loading...

Page views of Natsume Sōseki by language

Loading...

Among WRITERS

Among writers, Natsume Sōseki ranks 499 out of 7,302. Before him are Yevgeny Zamyatin, Arnold Bennett, Lysias, Traudl Junge, Marie-Antoine Carême, and Margaret Atwood. After him are Władysław Reymont, Wolfram von Eschenbach, Saul Bellow, Lesya Ukrainka, Paul Claudel, and Dante Gabriel Rossetti.

Most Popular Writers in Wikipedia

Go to all Rankings
Load previousLoad previous

Contemporaries

Among people born in 1867, Natsume Sōseki ranks 18. Before him are Arturo Toscanini, John Galsworthy, Käthe Kollwitz, Emil Nolde, Johannes Fibiger, and Arnold Bennett. After him are Władysław Reymont, Maxime Weygand, Prince Maximilian of Baden, Princess Maria Josepha of Saxony, Enrique Granados, and Walther Rathenau. Among people deceased in 1916, Natsume Sōseki ranks 21. Before him are Richard Dedekind, Otto of Bavaria, José Echegaray, Sholem Aleichem, Henry James, and Umberto Boccioni. After him are Hiram Maxim, Ivan Franko, Helmuth von Moltke the Younger, Charles de Foucauld, Karl Schwarzschild, and Enrique Granados.

Others Born in 1867

Go to all Rankings
Load previousLoad previous

Others Deceased in 1916

Go to all Rankings
Load previousLoad previous

In Japan

Among people born in Japan, Natsume Sōseki ranks 59 out of 6,245. Before him are Emperor Ninkō (1800), Emperor Kōkaku (1771), Olivia de Havilland (1916), Hideki Yukawa (1907), Takashi Kasahara (1918), and Emperor Suizei (-669). After him are Tokugawa Yoshinobu (1837), Kane Tanaka (1903), Paulo Miki (1564), Mako (1933), Koxinga (1624), and Dōgen (1200).

Others born in Japan

Go to all Rankings
Load previousLoad previous

Among WRITERS In Japan

Among writers born in Japan, Natsume Sōseki ranks 10. Before him are Yukio Mishima (1925), Yasunari Kawabata (1899), Murasaki Shikibu (973), Osamu Dazai (1909), Kenzaburō Ōe (1935), and Ryūnosuke Akutagawa (1892). After him are Kazuo Ishiguro (1954), Sei Shōnagon (966), Kōbō Abe (1924), Jun'ichirō Tanizaki (1886), Zeami Motokiyo (1363), and Masaru Emoto (1943).

Japanese born Writers

Go to all Rankings
Load previousLoad previous