Sanshiro and Urban Space Natsume Soseki’s Sanshiro took place in Tokyo and used that setting to show the shortcomings and successes of Japanese urban spaces in the early Meiji-era. Sanshiro was from Kyushu, he was a Japanese farm-boy, but began attending university far away from home. He represents the Japanese who had to adjust to life in unfamiliar urban spaces and how living in those spaces could cause social change. Using the sequence on pages 90-94 of Sanshiro, I will examine how locals in Tokyo differed from Sanshiro when adjusting to, observing, and navigating the city. First, it’s important to see how adjusting to life in a new space can be difficult for most people. Having the perspective of outsiders leads to insights about what the space they are…show more content… Adjustment for people like Sanshiro involves changes to their moral compasses to match their new environment. On pages 91 and 92 of Sanshiro, the characters were very nonchalant about their environment and the events going on around them. The company passed by a beggar and did not acknowledge him as a person or take any emotional interest in him. Instead, they discussed the beggar in an analytical, some-what scientific, and joking way. This implies beggars were common in Tokyo and it was easy for locals to share how they felt about these types of people. We see that Sanshiro, the outsider, does not express himself in the same way in the following passage: “Sanshiro felt that some damage was being done to the moral precept she had cultivated thus far. Not only had it never crossed his mind to toss the beggar money, however: he had actually found it unpleasant to walk past the man.” (Soseki, p.92).
