Soseki Natsume in the UK
150 years anniversary of Soseki’s birth

 This year is the 150 year anniversary of the birth of Soseki Natsume, one of the most outstanding Japanese novelists of the 20th century. Soseki studied at University College London (UCL) from 1900 to 1902 after teaching English at the Matsuyama Junior High School (currently Matsuyama Higashi High School) and the Fifth High School (currently Kumamoto University). After returning to Japan, he worked in Tokyo University and started his life as novelist based on his experiences in the U.K. As a consequence of his time in the UK, his work became  influenced by Shakespeare and a range of contemporary British novelists. Soseki may be not as famous as Yasunari Kawabata and Yukio Mishima, but he isvery influential in Japan. In fact, as most Japanese students are exposed  to his work includingKokoro in high school,  his stories are  regarded as culturally iconic and common sense for Japanese people, much like Shakespeare in the U.K.Even, Haruki Murakami, who is thought  of as a possible future winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, admits that Soseki is his most favourite Japanese novelist. Soseki’s face was on the 1000 yen note for achievements during his lifetime.

This July, we have organised the third UCL-Japan Youth Challenge. This is a special summer school for British and Japanese High School/Sixth Form students. This year’s theme is “Soseki in the UK.” To celebrate this anniversary, we have invited four students and a teacher from the Matsuyama Higashi High School, the setting of his famous novel Botchan. As part of “Soseki in the UK”, we will run a special lecture "Natsume Soseki versus William Shakespeare: Two Heavyweights of World Literature" by Damian Flanagan, an expert on Soseki. In respect to this, the Iwanami Shoten, Publishing House, which  published Soseki’s books from the beginning, will donate a complete set of Soseki’s works to the UCL library.

 

Natsume Soseki vs. Shakespeare Workshop
UCL hosts UCL-Japan Youth Challenge, a special summer school for both Japanese and British High School students. In this workshop, the students will have an opportunity to learn and discuss about Soseki and Shakespeare through guidance of Ms Tina Courtenay-Thompson, a teacher of English literature.

 

A special lecture by Damian Flanagan
Damian Flanagan will present a special lecture about Soseki Nataume through a British perspective. Damian Flanagan is an award-winning author and an expert on the works of Soseki, he has authored two books on Soseki: The Natsume Soseki the Japanese Don’t Know and Natsume Soseki: Superstar of World Literature, and alsotranslated The Tower of London: Tales of Victorian London which Soseki wrote based on the experience in London. He won a prestigiousJapan-US Friendship Commission Prize for the Translation of Japanese Literature for this translation.

 

Soseki Reception
A formal reception will follow the lecture, attended by Iwanami Shoten, Publishing House and the Japanese Embassy.  At this reception, we will observe a ceremony, in which Iwanami Shoten, Publishers donate their gift, Soseki Zenshu (comprising all the books of Soseki’s novels), to UCL, a presentation by the students from Matsuyama Higashi High School and a herb tea demonstration.

 

The symposium is free of charge but prior registration is required via Eventbrite.