Natsume Soseki

Natsume Sōseki, born Natsume Kinnosuke, was a Japanese novelist, poet and scholar who is often called the first modern novelist of Japan. He taught English literature at Tokyo Imperial University before leaving in 1907 to write full-time for the Asahi Shimbun newspaper. His major novels include I Am a Cat, Botchan, Sanshiro and Kokoro, the last of which follows a young student's bond with an older man shadowed by his past. He died in 1916 at 49, leaving Light and Dark unfinished.