is a satirical novel

Novel

A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....

 written in 1905–1906 by Natsume Sōseki

Natsume Soseki

, born ', is widely considered to be the foremost Japanese novelist of the Meiji period . He is best known for his novels Kokoro, Botchan, I Am a Cat and his unfinished work Light and Darkness. He was also a scholar of British literature and composer of haiku, Chinese-style poetry, and fairy tales...

, about Japanese society during the Meiji Period

Meiji period

The , also known as the Meiji era, is a Japanese era which extended from September 1868 through July 1912. This period represents the first half of the Empire of Japan.- Meiji Restoration and the emperor :...

; particularly, the uneasy mix of Western culture

Western culture

Western culture, sometimes equated with Western civilization or European civilization, refers to cultures of European origin and is used very broadly to refer to a heritage of social norms, ethical values, traditional customs, religious beliefs, political systems, and specific artifacts and...

 and Japanese traditions, and the aping of Western customs

Mores

Mores, in sociology, are any given society's particular norms, virtues, or values. The word mores is a plurale tantum term borrowed from Latin, which has been used in the English language since the 1890s....

.

Sōseki's original title, Wagahai wa neko de aru, uses very high register

Register (sociolinguistics)

In linguistics, a register is a variety of a language used for a particular purpose or in a particular social setting. For example, when speaking in a formal setting an English speaker may be more likely to adhere more closely to prescribed grammar, pronounce words ending in -ing with a velar nasal...

 phrases more appropriate to a nobleman, conveying a grandiloquence and self-importance intended to sound ironic, since the speaker is a house cat.

The book was first published in ten installments in the literary journal

Literary magazine

A literary magazine is a periodical devoted to literature in a broad sense. Literary magazines usually publish short stories, poetry and essays along with literary criticism, book reviews, biographical profiles of authors, interviews and letters...

 Hototogisu

Hototogisu

Hototogisu may refer to:*Lesser Cuckoo , a bird native to Japan*Hototogisu , a literary magazine*Hototogisu , a 1922 Japanese film*Hototogisu , a video game for the Nintendo Entertainment System...

. At first, Sōseki intended only to write the short story

Short story

A short story is a work of fiction that is usually written in prose, often in narrative format. This format tends to be more pointed than longer works of fiction, such as novellas and novels. Short story definitions based on length differ somewhat, even among professional writers, in part because...

 that constitutes the first chapter of I Am a Cat. However, Takahama Kyoshi, one of the editors of Hototogisu, persuaded Sōseki to serialize the work, which evolved stylistically as the installments progressed. Nearly all of the stories can stand alone as a discrete work. The serial was eventually compiled into a book edition of three volumes. 1911 marked the first year the complete work was published in a single volume.

In the mid-1970s, the prolific screenwriter

Screenwriter

Screenwriters or scriptwriters or scenario writers are people who write/create the short or feature-length screenplays from which mass media such as films, television programs, Comics or video games are based.-Profession:...

 Toshio Yasumi adapted Sōseki's novel into a screenplay

Screenplay

A screenplay or script is a written work that is made especially for a film or television program. Screenplays can be original works or adaptations from existing pieces of writing. In them, the movement, actions, expression, and dialogues of the characters are also narrated...

. Kon Ichikawa

Kon Ichikawa

was a Japanese film director.-Early life and career:Ichikawa was born in Ise, Mie Prefecture. In the 1930s Ichikawa attended a technical school in Osaka. Upon graduation, in 1933, he found a job with a local rental film studio, J.O. Studio, in their animation department...

 directed the film, which premiered in Japanese cinemas in 1975.

Plot summary

In I Am a Cat, a supercilious, feline narrator describes the lives of an assortment of middle class

Middle class

The middle class is any class of people in the middle of a societal hierarchy. In Weberian socio-economic terms, the middle class is the broad group of people in contemporary society who fall socio-economically between the working class and upper class....

 Japanese people

Japanese people

The are an ethnic group originating in the Japanese archipelago and are the predominant ethnic group of Japan. Worldwide, approximately 130 million people are of Japanese descent; of these, approximately 127 million are residents of Japan. People of Japanese ancestry who live in other countries...

: Mr. Sneaze (literally translated from Chinno Kushami, 珍野苦沙弥, in the original Japanese) and family (the cat's owners), Sneaze's garrulous and irritating friend Waverhouse (Meitei, 迷亭), and the young scholar Avalon Coldmoon (Mizushima Kangetsu, 水島寒月) with his will-he-won't-he courtship of the businessman's spoilt daughter, Opula Goldfield (Kaneda Tomiko, 金田富子).

External links

Full text (Kyūjitai

Kyujitai

Kyūjitai, literally "old character forms" , are the traditional forms of kanji, Chinese written characters used in Japanese. Their simplified counterparts are shinjitai, "new character forms". Some of the simplified characters arose centuries ago and were in everyday use in both China and Japan,...

 and Historical kana orthography) - Aozora bunko

Aozora Bunko

Aozora Bunko is a Japanese digital library. This online collection encompasses several thousands of works of Japanese-language fiction and non-fiction. These include out-of-copyright books or works that the authors wish to make freely available....

 Full text (Shinjitai

Shinjitai

Shinjitai are the forms of kanji used in Japan since the promulgation of the Tōyō Kanji List in 1946. Some of the new forms found in shinjitai are also found in simplified Chinese, but shinjitai is generally not as extensive in the scope of its modification...

 and Modern kana usage) - Aozora bunko I Am a Cat - natsumesoseki.com