The Gate — Summary and Characters
Quiet days for a couple with a guilt
- Author
- Natsume Sōseki
- Published
- March 1910
- First appeared in
- Asahi Shimbun
- Form
- Novel
- Genres
- Romance
- Psychological
- Setting
- Tokyo
- Kanagawa
- Length
- 139,809 characters
- Reading time
- About 4 hr 40 min
- Orthography
- Modern script and kana
About this work
The third of Sōseki's early trilogy, serialized in the Asahi Shimbun from March to June 1910. A husband and wife who came together by betraying his closest friend live quietly, almost in hiding from the world; seeking release from that guilt the husband goes to the gate of a Zen temple, and can only stand before it. Introspective and still, a fitting close to the trilogy.
Summary
Sōsuke and his wife Oyone, living quietly in a rented house at the foot of a cliff, have a past they can tell no one. Oyone had been as good as the wife of Sōsuke's closest friend Yasui, and their coming together had forced Sōsuke to give up his studies and withdraw from the world, and long years had gone by with no word between him and Yasui. No child of theirs lives, and Sōsuke passes his days as a poorly paid clerk in a government office. One day he learns that Yasui, back from Manchuria, has been coming and going as a guest at the house of his landlord Sakai, and he is shaken. Afraid of running into Yasui, Sōsuke goes to a Zen temple at Kamakura in search of peace of mind, but comes down from the mountain after some ten days without having attained enlightenment. In the end he is told that Yasui has left for Manchuria without their having met, and he is relieved. When the long winter ends and the spring sunlight comes onto the veranda, Sōsuke and Oyone are glad together that spring has come round at last; but from Sōsuke's mouth comes the remark that yes, but it will soon be winter again.
Characters
- Nonaka Sōsuke A poorly paid clerk living quietly with his wife in a rented house at the foot of a cliff. The protagonist, who suffers under the sense of an old sin
- Oyone Sōsuke's wife, who had once been as good as Yasui's wife
- Yasui Sōsuke's former closest friend, betrayed over Oyone and cut off from him ever since
- Koroku Sōsuke's younger brother, who turns to his brother and sister-in-law when he cannot pay his school fees
- Sakai Sōsuke's landlord, a man of means who had known Yasui in Manchuria
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. Main Supporting Characters
- 4. The House Below the Cliff — An Autumn Sunday and the Brother's School Fees
- 5. The Hōitsu Screen and the Landlord Above the Cliff
- 6. Winter — Oyone's Collapse and Three Losses
- 7. The Past — What Happened in Kyoto
- 8. Coincidence — Sakai's Guest
- 9. The Mountain Gate — Ten Days of Zen Practice
- 10. The Ending — Winter Comes Again
- 11. Key Motifs and Foreshadowing
The opening (original text)
Sōsuke had brought a cushion out to the veranda a while before and had settled himself comfortably cross-legged in what looked like a sunny spot; but presently he threw down the magazine he had been holding and lay over on his side. It was fine enough weather to be called an autumn day, and in so quiet a street the clatter of the clogs of people going by in the road came cheerfully to his ears.
The Gate by Natsume Sōseki (Aozora Bunko)
The ending (original text)
Sōsuke went home and repeated to Oyone the exchange about the warbler. Oyone looked through the glass of the paper doors at the bright sunlight and said, "How grateful one is. Spring has come at last," and her brow cleared. Sōsuke went out to the veranda and, cutting his long-grown nails, answered, "Yes, but it will soon be winter again," and went on working the scissors with his head down.
The Gate by Natsume Sōseki (Aozora Bunko)
Famous passages
For some time now Sōsuke had brought a cushion out to the veranda and sat cross-legged in a spot that looked sunny, but before long he tossed aside the magazine in his hand and lay down flat.
A quiet opening on a veranda on a fine autumn day. The daily life of a couple who carry a past with them and live at the edge of society is distilled into this one peaceful moment.
He was not a man who could pass through the gate. Nor was he a man who could get by without passing through it. In short, he was one of those unfortunate men fated to stand frozen beneath the gate, waiting for the day to end.
A line describing Sōsuke as he comes down the mountain, having given up on his Zen retreat. It names his position — neither reaching salvation nor able to return to daily life — by layering it onto the title's image of a gate.
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
- Gubijinsō June 1907
- Sanshirō September 1908
- And Then June 1909
Related works
- The Wild Geese September 1911
- Onna keizu January 1907
- The Quilt September 1907
- Tadare March 1913
- A Certain Woman March 1919
- Naomi March 1924