In the Meiji era, the image of a novelist in the minds of ordinary people was quite different: in a shabby room in a narrow alley, with his back to a broken sliding door, sat a man with a furrowed brow, coughing repeatedly while writing fervently at his desk. Thanks to his father, who was a teacher with a stable income before he began writing, their living expenses were somewhat better than those of other writers at the time.

However, even after he became famous, he still could not afford to buy his own home and lived in rented accommodations all his life. Whether it was the place in Chiyoda where he wrote his first novel "I Am a Cat," or the house in Nishikata, and later the room in Waseda Minamimachi where he lived before his father's death, by today's housing standards, they were merely second or third-rate apartments. In that era, only wealthy families had bathrooms and telephones. Our family only had a home bathroom in my father's later years. Before that, we all bathed in public baths.

A photo of Natsume Sōseki's children; Sōseki had six children: Nobuko (eldest daughter), Hisako (second daughter), Eiko (third daughter), Aiko (youngest daughter), Junichi (eldest son), and Shinroku (second son).

Thus, Sōseki's life was not considered affluent, likely due to having many children and the burden of family finances, but compared to the struggles of Higuchi Ichiyō in poverty, it was certainly much better. Nobuko, Sōseki's eldest daughter, later changed her surname to Matsumoto after marrying her husband, Matsumoto Jō. Matsumoto was a classmate of Akutagawa Ryūnosuke and Kume Masao during their time at the First High School (all three were Sōseki's disciples) and later became Sōseki's son-in-law. It is said that Kume Masao was also very likely to become Sōseki's son-in-law, as Sōseki initially favored Kume over Akutagawa. In 1917, Kume published a novel in "Shinchō" magazine, implying that he was engaged to Nobuko, which displeased her mother (Mrs. Kagami). Coincidentally, Nobuko had intentions towards Matsumoto Jō, so this marriage proposal fell through. Kume harbored resentment about this and vented his grievances everywhere.

Natsume Sōseki's "Mountains Above Mountains," November of the first year of Taisho.

The left image shows Tsukamoto before marriage, the right image is their wedding photo, and the lower image is from the fifteenth year of Taisho with their eldest son Hirōshi and second son Yōzō.

In most accounts, Kume appears as a close friend of Akutagawa. In 1920, Kume, along with Akutagawa, Kikuchi Kan, and Uno Kōji, went on a speaking tour in the Kyoto and Osaka areas. Before Akutagawa's suicide in 1927, he left Kume a letter titled "To an Old Friend" and entrusted him with many of his manuscripts. After Akutagawa's suicide, Kume read "To an Old Friend," and then family and friends held a vigil for Akutagawa.

The deep friendship between Akutagawa and Kume is well-known, and he also had a close relationship with Matsumoto. It is said that once when Akutagawa visited Matsumoto, he entered the rented small house to find Matsumoto deeply asleep, with a script he had been writing all night beside him. Upon closer inspection, Akutagawa noticed tears streaming down Matsumoto's face. Akutagawa was stunned into silence, and tears flowed from his own eyes as he recalled the loneliness and hardships of his own writing. He left without waking Matsumoto, and as the wind howled outside, he renewed his determination to write. Writing should endure loneliness and never extinguish the burning hope for ideals.

How Sōseki nurtured his disciples.

In the thirty-ninth year of Meiji (1906), he moved to a new home in Nishikata, where many friends and disciples began to gather. Arashiyama Kōzaburō recounted in "The Cookie Teacher" that Sōseki's disciples came to life under his pen.

"There were many people, such as the heavy-drinking Suzuki Miekichi, Uchida Hyakken who once ate six pieces of fried pork cutlet at once, and Komiya Toyotaka who treated the Natsume household as his own, as well as Takahashi Kyōko who ordered Western food for delivery with his own money, all gathered together. Due to the overwhelming number of visitors every day, he had to set Thursday as the day for receiving guests. Even so, there were still visitors like Nogami Toyōichirō, Morita Sōhei, Takita Chōin, Noma Masakazu, Matsukane Tōyōjō, Terada Torahiko, and even students like Akutagawa Ryūnosuke and Kume Masao. When everyone gathered, they would hold a banquet, ordering chicken hot pot from Kawate, drinking and having fun, with Suzuki Miekichi always getting drunk and causing a scene. When Miekichi was drunk, he wouldn't bother Kyōko or Terada Torahiko, but would always pester his familiar friends Komiya Toyotaka, Morita Sōhei, and the young Uchida Hyakken."

The younger generation who appeared in Sōseki's salon achieved remarkable success, becoming the pinnacle of the cultured class in the Taisho era. Such as Suzuki Miekichi, who later founded the children's literature magazine "Akabako," Nogami Toyōichirō, who served as the president of Hosei University, and his writer wife Nogami Yayoko; writers Morita Sōhei, Uchida Hyakken, and Eguchi Kō; literary critics and painters Komiya Toyotaka; philosopher Abe Jirō; philosopher Watsuji Tetsurō; Iwanami Shigeo, who founded the Iwanami Bunko series; Terada Torahiko, known as the "poetic scientist"; and Abe Yoshinari, an authority on Kant who served as Japan's first Minister of Education after the war and president of Gakushuin, among others...

Sōseki's disciple Matsumoto Jō, his wife Nobuko, and their children.

Sōseki devoted great effort to helping and nurturing the younger generation, considering it his duty to protect promising young people from irresponsible evaluations and criticisms. He sought to discover new talents through reviews and letters or by utilizing publications, providing strict guidance and motherly care to young writers. In a letter to Wakasugi Saburō in October 1906, he earnestly stated, "I will pave the way for the younger generation, dedicating myself wholeheartedly until death, laying the foundation for a stage where more talents can shine." Sōseki was particularly concerned about his disciples Morita Sōhei, Komiya Toyotaka, Nogami Yayoko, and the new trend writers Kume Masao and Akutagawa Ryūnosuke, writing numerous letters to them, offering earnest advice on character and writing.

Among young writers, Kansu's "Silver Spoon" was recommended by Sōseki for serialization in the "Asahi Shimbun" for two full years. Without his recommendation, it would have been nearly impossible for a newcomer’s novel to be serialized in a major newspaper.

Shiki's disciple Nagatsuka Seiji was a devoted student. His fellow disciple Itō Sachio lamented this teacher-student relationship, saying, "As a father-son relationship, it is too ideal; as a teacher-student relationship, it is too emotional." Upon learning of his teacher Shiki's death in the countryside of Ibaraki, Nagatsuka immediately came to Tokyo to pay his respects and stayed until the seventh day of mourning. After Shiki's death, he published several sketches in "Matsuzaki," which deeply moved Sōseki. In 1907, Sōseki abandoned the "comfortable" life of a university teacher and became a reporter for the Asahi Shimbun, beginning a creative life dedicated to literary writing, publishing major works such as "Kusamakura" and "Sanshirō." From 1909 to 1911, the Asahi Shimbun opened a literary column, assisted by his disciples Morita Sōhei and Komiya Toyotaka, to promote new writers.

"Earth" [Japanese] by Nagatsuka Seiji, "Memoirs of Natsume Sōseki" published by Guwu Xuan, Phoenix Yihe.

In June 1910, thanks to Natsume Sōseki's recommendation, Nagatsuka Seiji began serializing "Earth" in the "Tokyo Asahi Shimbun." Previously, he had gained Sōseki's admiration for several travel essays and short stories published in "Dōkō" magazine, especially "Sado Island," which caught Sōseki's attention towards this obscure rural writer. In Sōseki's eyes, this young man possessed a calm demeanor that belied his age, mature beyond his years, not chasing trends, nor deliberately trying to be different, but simply pursuing art with genuine feelings. Sōseki remarked that meeting Nagatsuka was like "discovering a new crop, eager to announce it to the world, even if today's literary world does not recognize this new style and new taste, I would still boldly advocate for it. Only in this way can the literary world open up new fields."