| I Am a Cat | |
| Author: | Natsume Sōseki |
| Language: | Japanese |
| Country: | Japan |
| Genre: | Satirical novel |
| Isbn: | 978-0-8048-3265-6 |
| Title Orig: | Wagahai wa Neko de Aru |
| Translator: | Aiko Ito and Graeme Wilson |
| Release Date: | 1905–1906 |
| English Release Date: | 1972 by Tuttle Publishing |
| Media Type: | Print (hardback & paperback) |
| Congress: | PL812.A8 W313 2002 |
| Oclc: | 49703480 |
is a satirical novel written in 1905–1906 by Natsume Sōseki about Japanese society during the Meiji period (1868–1912), particularly the uneasy mix of Western culture and Japanese traditions.
Sōseki's title, Wagahai wa Neko de Aru, uses a very high-register phrasing more appropriate to a nobleman, conveying grandiloquence and self-importance. This is somewhat ironic, since the speaker, an anthropomorphized domestic cat, is a regular house cat of a teacher, and not of a high-ranking noble as the manner of speech suggests, an example of Sōseki's love for droll writing.
The book was first published in ten installments in the literary journal Hototogisu. At first, Sōseki intended only to write the short story 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 the chapters can stand alone as discrete works.[1]
In I Am a Cat, a supercilious, feline narrator describes the lives of an assortment of middle-class Japanese people: Mr. [2] ("sneeze" is misspelled on purpose, but literally translated from, in the original Japanese) and family (the cat's owners), Sneaze's garrulous and irritating friend, and the young scholar with his will-he-won't-he courtship of the businessman's spoiled daughter, .
I Am a Cat is a frequent assignment to Japanese schoolchildren, such that the plot and style remain well-known long after publication. One effect was that the narrator's manner of speech, which was archaic even at the time of writing, became largely associated with the cat and the book. The narrator's preferred personal pronoun, Japanese: wagahai, is rarely-to-never used in real life in Japan, but survives in fiction thanks to the book, generally for arrogant and pompous anthropomorphized animals. For example, Bowser, the turtle-king enemy in many Mario video games, uses Japanese: wagahai, as does Morgana, a cat character in Persona 5.[3]
The novel was first adapted into a film released in 1936. The film's setting was moved to the end of WWI and the ending was changed to be less nihilistic. Later, prolific screenwriter Toshio Yasumi adapted the novel into a screenplay, and a second film was directed by Kon Ichikawa. It premiered in Japanese cinemas in 1975. An anime television special adaptation aired in 1982. It was also adapted into a manga by Chiroru Kobato in 2010 and translated into English by Zack Davisson.