I Am a Cat by Natsume Sōseki / Review

 

I Am a Cat
by Natsume Sōseki

From Hello Kitty and Doraemon to the works of Haruki Murakami, Hayao Miyazaki and Yukio Mishima, felines have long been a key figure in the Japanese imagination.

Long before cat photos went viral on social media, Japan had a deep devotion to felines, which was proudly reflected in its culture. From folklore legends and anime films to literary classics and traditional poetry, the Asian country’s fascination with cats extends to daily life — statistics confirm that cats are the most popular pet in Japan.

“Today’s cat culture began with the rise of the consumer society in the 1970s and 1980s,” explains literary critic Kai Nagase, who mentions Hello Kitty, the mouthless cat who rivals Mickey Mouse in worldwide sales of licensed products. Hello Kitty helped internationalize the Japanese cultural phenomenon Kawaii, which emphasizes cuteness, as seen in characters with childlike characteristics such as very large eyes and tiny mouths.

Nagase confesses that his favorite fictional character is Doraemon, the robot cat from the 22nd century, whose manga and anime stories have been a part of Japanese childhood for five decades. “The inspiration to dream that we have received from Doraemon is immeasurable,” says the critic, highlighting the “soft power” of both Doraemon and Hello Kitty. In 2008, Doraemon was named Japan’s first “animation ambassador,” and in 2017, Kitty was appointed the Special Ambassador of the International Year of Sustainable Tourism Development.

The popularity of Doraemon and Kitty contrasts with the obscurity of their more cultured predecessor — the protagonist of I Am a Cat — the first novel by the famous writer Natsume Sōseki (1867-1916), which is commonly read in Japanese schools. Soseki’s cat — which remains nameless throughout the story — is a scathing critic of human selfishness and also satirizes the Westernization of Japanese society at the end of the 19th century. “It is not a story about a cat, but a story told by a cat. That makes it unique in modern Japanese literature, and its style has influenced many later creations,” says Nagase.

EL PAÍS