智に働けば角が立つ。情に棹させば流される。意地を通せば窮屈だ。兎角に人の世は住みにくい。 — Natsume Sōseki

Natsume Sōseki 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