Kokoro

A young student befriends an older man he calls Sensei, a recluse burdened by a guilt he will not name, until a final confession reveals how, years before, Sensei betrayed his friend K over the woman he loved, and how K's suicide has shadowed his life ever since. Set against the death of the Meiji Emperor, Sōseki maps a real Tokyo and its edges: the Kamakura beach where student and Sensei first meet, the university and the walks of the capital, the lodging house of the old betrayal, and the cemetery where Sensei tends K's grave.

The student

Kamakura beach

Part I

On the crowded summer beach at Kamakura the young student notices an older man, Sensei, swimming alone, and strikes up the acquaintance that will shape his life. The seaside opening, easy and sunlit, gives no hint of the darkness Sensei carries, and sets against the coming confession the innocence with which the friendship begins.

Part I

explicit The student first meets Sensei on the beach at Kamakura, the real seaside town south of Tokyo, where both are summering; sited at Yuigahama, outside the Tokyo setting.

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The student

The university

Part I

In Tokyo the student pursues his studies at the university and takes to calling regularly on Sensei, drawn by the older man's melancholy wisdom. Through their walks and talks across the capital, Sōseki builds the strange, one-sided intimacy of a young man's devotion to a mentor who keeps warning him away from his own heart.

Part I

explicit Back in Tokyo the student attends the Imperial University and visits Sensei; the walks and the campus are set in the real university district of Hongō.

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