47 pages • 1 hour read
Natsume SōsekiKokoro
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1914A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Part 3, Chapters 55-72Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Part 3: “Sensei’s Testament”
Part 3, Chapters 55-60 Summary
The narrator reads Sensei’s letter, which is written in the first person from Sensei’s perspective. At first, Sensei describes the difficulty he felt in composing the letter and how he had wanted to tell the story in person before realizing that he would not have the time. He wants to “apologize for [his] remissness” (140), and he regrets not being able to help the narrator in his quest to find a job. Sensei admits that his behavior was selfish. Only when the narrator mentioned his father’s ill health did Sensei realize that he was not behaving properly. As an apology, Sensei has written out everything that the narrator wanted to know about his dark secrets. He trusts the narrator because the narrator is “sincere.” The letter serves a dual purpose: to keep Sensei’s promise to the narrator and to exorcize Sensei’s regrets by committing his memories to the page for posterity. He does not want to take his secrets to the grave.
Sensei’s memories begin with the story of his parents’ deaths. His parents were “quite wealthy,” and they died at similar times of the same disease; his father caught typhoid, and while treating him, his mother became infected. Sensei was given over to his uncle, whom he trusted “completely.” Sensei’s mother wanted him to study in Tokyo, so he was sent to the city. Each month, he received a small allowance as his uncle managed his dead parents’ estate. During this time, his uncle becomes “ensconced” in the now-empty family home and brought his wife with him. Sensei still fondly remembers his first summer vacation when he returned to the countryside from Tokyo.
Part 3, Chapters 61-66 Summary
Though this time was mostly happy, Sensei remembers an awkward meeting with his uncle and aunt. They pressed upon him the need to get married, but Sensei felt no such pressure. On his next visit to the household, he realized what they really wanted: His uncle began pressuring Sensei to marry his cousin (his uncle’s daughter). Though Sensei and his cousin were very close and it seemed a “suitable enough arrangement” (150), he did not feel a romantic attraction to her and declined the offer. The next time he returned to the house, the family had “changed” (152). They were cold and distant, and Sensei did not feel welcome. His ostracization led to suspicions; Sensei began to suspect that his uncle was not being entirely honest regarding his dead parents’ estate and his inheritance. He learned that his uncle’s previously failing business “had suddenly revived and prospered” (154).
Sensei’s suspicions were vindicated: His uncle had been embezzling his inheritance and investing the money in his business. Despite his uncle’s immoral behavior, and even though he was “cheated” out of his inheritance, Sensei now blames himself. He criticizes his own naivety, though he does—to some degree—now covet the innocence he has lost. Not wanting to take his uncle to court, Sensei asked his family to intervene, and he was able to recover a small portion of his wealthy family’s estate.
The distrust he felt toward his family made him cynical about the rest of the world. After selling what was left of the estate, the cash-rich Sensei moved permanently to Tokyo. He was still a student, and his small remaining inheritance was enough to cover his expenses. He did not want to live in boisterous student accommodations, so he sought out a “suitable house” to rent. Eventually, he found a widow who was willing to rent him a room in her house. Sensei uses formal names to refer to this family, not wanting to use their real names. The woman is referred to as Okusan. She had a daughter, whom he calls Ojosan. Gradually, Sensei fell in love with Ojosan, and he was accepted into the household.
Part 3, Chapters 67-72 Summary
Feeling a “new happiness,” Sensei spoke often with Ojosan. Okusan seemed pleased that they were on such friendly terms. This acceptance, however, began to rile Sensei. He suspected that he was being manipulated by the widow into marrying her daughter. Even though he would not reject such a marriage, he did not like the idea of being manipulated. Sensei admits that his experience with his uncle made him cynical, and he resents that this cynicism caused him to disavow his true feelings. His internal conflicts reached a head when he was seen shopping with Okusan and Ojosan; his classmate teased him, pretending that he had a wife and congratulating him “on marrying such a beauty” (174). Sensei became even more withdrawn.
Part 3, Chapters 55-72 Analysis
Part 3 of Kokoro is an immediate shift in format and style. The final part (and roughly half the novel) consists of Sensei’s long letter to the narrator. The first-person perspective from Parts 1 and 2 is maintained, but the storyteller has changed; this creates a sense of intimacy between the reader and Sensei, who has been a relatively elusive figure until this point in the book. The structure of the novel changes at this moment; the audience becomes like the narrator, reading Sensei’s story in his own words and exploring Sensei’s dark past from his perspective.
After failing to tell this story to the narrator in person, Sensei has accepted that it must be told in this literary manner. The decision to contain everything in a letter gives him control over the narrative; in a very literal sense, he is controlling the way his story is told rather than relying on the narrator to pass along the information to the audience. Sensei has been reserved with this information for many years, but he has finally decided to share the story with the narrator. The sense of freedom and release in Sensei’s explanation for writing the letter is cathartic but foreboding. Sensei has accepted the reality of his past, but this acceptance dictates the course of his future. The story can only be told in this moment because Sensei now knows how the story will end.
The events described in Sensei’s letter take place many decades earlier than the events described in Parts 1 and 2. During the time that Sensei is describing, however, he is the same age as the narrator: a university student who is approaching his final exams while studying in Tokyo. The similarities and contrasts between Sensei and the narrator’s lives and societies during their time at university provide a way to examine the development of Japanese society during the final decades of the Meiji Restoration. Sensei was studying in Tokyo during the pinnacle of this era, while the narrator’s story takes place right at the moment the era ends with the Emperor’s death. Sensei is aware of the contrasts between the two time periods, mentioning the way society has developed, though he does not go into detail about these changes.
To Sensei, present-day university students are more placid and less disruptive. Though he does not mention it, students during Sensei’s time were more agitated and disruptive. They protested the government to advocate for the social changes that the narrator now takes for granted. As with most things, however, Sensei takes a broad view of these changes. He does not chastise the narrator for his lack of social disruption; he merely notes the changes as part of the gradual development of a world he long ago learned to loathe.
Sensei’s Cynicism and Antipathy toward the world are one of the cornerstones of his personality. This antipathy is shaped by two events: his uncle’s betrayal and K’s death. These events are significant in that Sensei is the victim in the former and—by his own reckoning—the instigator of the latter. His dislike of other people is informed by the way others have treated him, as well as the way he has treated others. In Part 3’s early chapters, however, Sensei is very much a victim. While mourning his parents’ death, he is manipulated and scammed by a family member whom he trusted to handle his finances. After suddenly losing his parents and then losing his trust in family, Sensei is forced to confront the world’s unreliability. There are no institutions—not even family—that can be trusted to endure forever. Sensei’s jaded personality and his cynical view of people are instigated by this betrayal, which robs him of his childhood innocence as much as his money, and he is pushed into adulthood against his will.
