A childless couple, Shiobara Masanosuke and his wife, adopted him in 1868 and raised him until the age of nine, when the couple divorced. Having five children and a toddler had created family insecurity and was in some ways a disgrace to the Natsume family. When he was born, he already had five siblings. Sōseki began his life as an unwanted child, born to his mother late in her life, forty years old and his father then fifty-three. He was a descendant of Natsume Yoshinobu, a Sengoku period samurai and retainer of Tokugawa Ieyasu. His father, a powerful and wealthy nanushi, owned all land from Ushigome to Takadanobaba in Edo and handled most civil lawsuits at his doorstep.

Natsume Kin'nosuke was born on 9 February 1867 in the town of Babashita, Ushigome, Edo (present Kikui, Shinjuku, Tokyo), the fifth son of village head ( nanushi) Natsume Kohē Naokatsu and his wife Chie. From 1984 until 2004, his portrait appeared on the front of the Japanese 1,000 yen note.

He was also a scholar of British literature and writer of haiku, kanshi, and fairy tales. He is best known around the world for his novels Kokoro, Botchan, I Am a Cat, Kusamakura and his unfinished work Light and Darkness. A deeply thematic novel 'Kokoro' provides an excellent introduction to one of Japan's most beloved authors, Natsume Soseki.Natsume Sōseki ( 夏目漱石, 9 February 1867 – 9 December 1916), born Natsume Kin'nosuke ( 夏目金之助), was a Japanese novelist. The third part of the novel recounts a letter that the narrator receives from the 'Sensei,' which describes the circumstances that caused his loss of faith in humanity and the guilt he feels over the death of a childhood friend which drives him to the reclusive life that he has led.

In the second part of the novel the narrator graduates from college and returns home to await the death of his father. In the first part we find the narrator attending university where he befriends an older man, known only as 'Sensei,' who lives a largely reclusive life. Divided into three parts 'Sensei and I,' 'My Parents and I,' and 'Sensei and His Testament,' the novel explores the themes of loneliness and isolation. Literally meaning 'heart', the Japanese word 'kokoro' can be more distinctly translated as 'the heart of things' or 'feeling.' Natsume Soseki's 1914 novel, which was originally published in serial format in a Japanese newspaper, 'Kokoro' deals with the transition from the Japanese Meiji society to the modern era.

Kokoro by natsume sōseki