Gubijinsō — Summary and Characters
A tragedy around the vain Fujio
- Author
- Natsume Sōseki
- Published
- June 1907
- First appeared in
- Asahi Shimbun
- Form
- Novel
- Genres
- Romance
- Psychological
- Setting
- Tokyo
- Kyoto
- Length
- 198,379 characters
- Reading time
- About 6 hr 37 min
- Orthography
- Modern script and kana
About this work
The first novel Sōseki serialized after leaving teaching to become a staff writer for the Asahi Shimbun. Around Fujio, a vain woman proud of her looks and her wit, it sets out the marriage negotiations and the manoeuvring of love in a florid, Chinese-inflected prose. Against Fujio, who embodies modern selfishness and vanity, it places characters who hold to moral obligation, and leads them to tragedy in the shape of a morality play. Its splendour of style and its thematic seriousness made a great impression at the time, and it marks the start of Sōseki as a professional writer.
Summary
The novel opens with two young men, Kōno Kingo and Munechika Hajime, talking as they climb Mount Hiei near Kyoto. Kōno, a philosophical and world-weary man, has a half-sister, Fujio. Proud, and gifted with both beauty and wit, Fujio makes light of Munechika, the blunt man her late father betrothed her to, and inclines instead toward the polished and brilliant Ono Seizō. But Ono is already promised to Sayoko, the devoted daughter of the man to whom he owes everything. Fujio angling for Ono with a gold watch, Ono torn between obligation and love, matches and calculations of every kind tangle together. While Kōno, who preaches moral duty, and the cheerful and honest Munechika look on at those who chase after vanity, matters move toward catastrophe. Ono at last gives up Fujio and chooses his obligation to Sayoko; and Fujio, her pride destroyed, dies suddenly of that very pride. With the tragic end of a vain woman, the author draws, in a cool hand, the victory of moral duty and a world full of comedy.
Characters
- Fujio A vain woman proud of her beauty and her wit. She slights her betrothed and is drawn to the brilliant Ono, and after the break she dies a tragic death
- Kōno Kingo Fujio's half-brother. A world-weary young man of philosophical temper who holds to moral duty
- Munechika Hajime Fujio's betrothed. A cheerful, honest and good-natured man
- Ono Seizō The brilliant young man who comes near Fujio, torn between her and his obligation to Sayoko, his benefactor's daughter
- Sayoko Ono's betrothed. His benefactor's daughter, a modest woman
Chapter-by-chapter synopsis
The app covers this work chapter by chapter (full text in the app).
- 1. About This Work
- 2. Main Characters
- 3. Major Supporting Characters
- 4. Spring in Kyoto — Two Men on Mount Hiei
- 5. The House in Tokyo — The Mysterious Woman and the Gold Watch
- 6. The Night of the Exposition — Two Worlds Cross Paths
- 7. The Request to Break the Engagement — Ono’s Hesitation
- 8. Confrontation on a Rainy Day — The Shattered Gold Watch
- 9. The Ending — The Poppy Screen
- 10. Key Motifs and Foreshadowing
The opening (original text)
"It is a long way. Where exactly does one start the climb?" said one of them, stopping and wiping his forehead with a handkerchief. "I am not clear about that myself. It comes to the same thing wherever you start. The mountain is over there, in plain sight."
Gubijinsō by Natsume Sōseki (Aozora Bunko)
The ending (original text)
Two months later Kōno copied out this passage and sent it to Munechika in London. Munechika's reply ran: "Here nothing is in fashion but comedy."
Gubijinsō by Natsume Sōseki (Aozora Bunko)
Famous passages
Being in earnest, you see, means fighting in dead seriousness. It means striving to overcome. It means being unable to rest until you have overcome. It means the whole of a person thrown into action.
Near the novel's end, Munechika Ichi presses the wavering Ono to change his ways. Hammering home what it means to live sincerely, this is the most widely quoted line in the book.
Tragedy is greater than comedy.
The opening of Kōno Kingo's diary, placed at the novel's close. Written in the wake of Fujio's death, it is celebrated as the line that declares the theme of the entire work.
Those who forget death grow extravagant.
A line from the same diary. It argues that a life which forgets death grows arrogant, and in time tramples on morality — the view of life that runs through Fujio's tragedy.
Read the original
The original Japanese text is available at Aozora Bunko, and the app downloads the same text for its vertical-text reader.
More by this author
- I Am a Cat January 1905
- Botchan April 1906
- Kusamakura September 1906
- Sanshirō September 1908
- And Then June 1909
- The Gate March 1910
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- A Certain Woman March 1919
- The Dancing Girl January 1890