is a satirical novel written in 1905–1906 by

Natsume Sōseki , born , was a Japanese novelist. He is best known around the world for his novels '' Kokoro'', ''Botchan'', '' I Am a Cat'', '' Kusamakura'' and his unfinished work ''Light and Darkness''. He was also a scholar of British literature and writer ...

about Japanese society during the

Meiji period The is an era of Japanese history that extended from October 23, 1868 to July 30, 1912. The Meiji era was the first half of the Empire of Japan, when the Japanese people moved from being an isolated feudal society at risk of colonization b ...

(1868–1912), particularly the uneasy mix of

Western culture Leonardo da Vinci's ''Vitruvian Man''. Based on the correlations of ideal Body proportions">human proportions with geometry described by the ancient Roman architect Vitruvius in Book III of his treatise ''De architectura''. image:Plato Pio-Cle ...

and Japanese traditions. Sōseki's title, ''Wagahai wa Neko de Aru'', uses a very high-register phrasing more appropriate to a nobleman, conveying grandiloquence and self-importance. This is somewhat ironic, since the speaker, an

anthropomorphized Anthropomorphism is the attribution of human traits, emotions, or intentions to non-human entities. It is considered to be an innate tendency of human psychology. Personification is the related attribution of human form and characteristics t ...

domestic

cat The cat (''Felis catus'') is a domestic species of small carnivorous mammal. It is the only domesticated species in the family Felidae and is commonly referred to as the domestic cat or house cat to distinguish it from the wild members of ...

, is a regular house cat of a teacher, and not of a high-ranking noble as the manner of speech suggests, an example of Sōseki's love for droll writing. The book was first published in ten installments in the

literary journal A literary magazine is a periodical devoted to literature in a broad sense. Literary magazines usually publish short stories, poetry, and essays, along with literary criticism, book reviews, biographical profiles of authors, interviews and letters ...

'' Hototogisu''. At first, Sōseki intended only to write the short story that constitutes the first chapter of ''I Am a Cat''. However, Takahama Kyoshi, one of the editors of ''Hototogisu'', persuaded Sōseki to serialize the work, which evolved stylistically as the installments progressed. Nearly all the chapters can stand alone as discrete works.

Plot summary

In ''I Am a Cat'', a supercilious, feline narrator describes the lives of an assortment of middle-class

Japanese people The are an East Asian ethnic group native to the Japanese archipelago."人類学上は，旧石器時代あるいは縄文時代以来，現在の北海道〜沖縄諸島（南西諸島）に住んだ集団を祖先にもつ人々。" () Japa ...

: Mr. ("sneeze" is misspelled on purpose, but literally translated from , in the original Japanese) and family (the cat's owners), Sneaze's garrulous and irritating friend , and the young scholar with his will-he-won't-he courtship of the businessman's spoiled daughter, .

Cultural impact

''I Am a Cat'' is a frequent assignment to Japanese schoolchildren, such that the plot and style remain well-known long after publication. One effect was that the narrator's manner of speech, which was archaic even at the time of writing, became largely associated with the cat and the book. The narrator's preferred

personal pronoun Personal pronouns are pronouns that are associated primarily with a particular grammatical person – first person (as ''I''), second person (as ''you''), or third person (as ''he'', ''she'', ''it'', ''they''). Personal pronouns may also take dif ...

, ''wagahai'', is rarely-to-never used in "real life" in Japan, but survives in fiction thanks to the book, generally for arrogant and pompous anthropomorphized animals. For example,

Bowser , or King Koopa, is a fictional character, the primary antagonist in Nintendo's ''Mario'' franchise, and the arch-nemesis of Mario. In Japan, the character bears the title of . Bowser is the leader of the turtle-like Koopa race. Despite ...

, the turtle-king enemy in many ''Mario'' series video games, uses ''wagahai'', as does Morgana, a cat character in ''Persona 5''.

Adaptations

The novel was first adapted into a film released in 1936. Later, prolific screenwriter Toshio Yasumi adapted the novel into a screenplay, and a second film was directed by

Kon Ichikawa was a Japanese film director and screenwriter. His work displays a vast range in genre and style, from the anti-war films '' The Burmese Harp'' (1956) and '' Fires on the Plain'' (1959), to the documentary '' Tokyo Olympiad'' (1965), which won ...

. It premiered in Japanese cinemas in 1975. An

anime is hand-drawn and computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japanese, (a term derived from a shortening o ...

television special adaptation aired in 1982.

Footnotes

External links

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Full text
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Kyūjitai ''Kyūjitai'' ( ja, 舊字體 / 旧字体, lit=old character forms) are the traditional forms of kanji, Chinese written characters used in Japanese. Their simplified counterparts are ''shinjitai'' ( ja, 新字体, lit=new character forms, lab ...

and

Historical kana orthography The , or , refers to the in general use until orthographic reforms after World War II; the current orthography was adopted by Cabinet order in 1946. By that point the historical orthography was no longer in accord with Japanese pronunciation ...

) at

Aozora Bunko Aozora Bunko (, literally the "Blue Sky Library", also known as the "Open Air Library") is a Japanese digital library. This online collection encompasses several thousands of works of Japanese-language fiction and non-fiction. These include out-o ...

*
Full text
(

Shinjitai are the simplified forms of kanji used in Japan since the promulgation of the Tōyō Kanji List in 1946. Some of the new forms found in ''shinjitai'' are also found in Simplified Chinese characters, but ''shinjitai'' is generally not as extensiv ...

and

Modern kana usage is the present official '' kanazukai'' (system of spelling the Japanese syllabary). Also known as , it is derived from historical usage. History As long ago as the Meiji Restoration, there had been dissatisfaction regarding the growing disc ...

) at

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I Am a Cat
a
natsumesoseki.com
* (in English, translated by Kan-ichi Ando, 1906) (pdf
I Am a Cat, Chapter I & Chapter II (English, 1906)
* (excerpt)
Soseki Project
(resources for reading Sōseki's works in their original Japanese form) ; Adaptations * * * * *
''Wagahai wa Neko de Aru'' (1982)
at allcinema {{DEFAULTSORT:I Am A Cat 1906 novels Japanese comedy novels Novels about cats Fiction with unreliable narrators Japanese novels adapted into films Novels by Natsume Sōseki Novels set in Japan Japanese satirical novels Tuttle Publishing books Books about cats