The Gate

By Natsume Sōseki

Book Overview

This central masterpiece of modern Japanese literature recounts the decline and fall of a couple's fortunes and a husband's desperate attempt to find spiritual salvation.

"A sensitive, skillfully written novel by the most widely read Japanese author of modern times." -- Guardian

Deemed the "representative modern Japanese novelist" by Haruki Murakami, Natsume Soseki employs humor and irony with masterful precision in this great novel of indecision, widely considered one of the founding texts of modern Japanese letters.

Humble clerk Sosuke and his wife Oyone live in a modest house at the bottom of a cliff. Having previously been married to another man, Oyone's adultery now seems to hang over their marriage like a curse. With no children and Sosuke's incoming growing ever smaller, they are left with little besides each other and a beautiful painted screen as a souvenir of better days.

Then a series of crises rocks their shabby but harmonious domestic existence. Sosuke's brother moves in with them, demanding help to fund his studies; they find themselves forced to sell the screen to buy winter shoes; and Oyone's ex-husband is rumoured to be visiting a wealthy neighbour at the top of the cliff. On top of that, Sosuke's financial prospects keep getting worse. Beset by reminders of his flaws and failures, Sosuke runs away to a temple, hoping to escape into enlightenment. But can he learn what the monks have to teach him? Will he return to Oyone changed - or not at all?

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1805332511
• ISBN13: 9781805332510
• Release Date: October 2026
• Publisher: Pushkin Press Classics
• Length: 272 Pages
• Weight: 0.81 lbs.

Customer Reviews

How can this book be forgotten?

This is a wonderful book. How can it be out of print? Go to your library. This is a story of a childless couple who have come down in the world. They live in a kind of self imposed isolation because they feel they have been defiled. I suppose the defilement came from when they were first in love and maybe she had been involved with someone else at the time. I don't know why they feel so defiled. I've come across this theme in other Japanese novels. It seems like once you are defiled there isn't any chance for redemption. The story is about their life together. They have money problems, the man can't afford a new pair of shoes and the ones he has have holes in them and his feet get wet when it rains. The man is worried about his job. One of his teeth is going bad.The woman has her worries too and feels she is cursed and so she can't have any children. Despite their sad life they are deeply in love and share an understanding with each other that most people know nothing of. When the person they feel they have wronged shows up, the man decides to go to a Buddhist monastery to find out where he's gone wrong in life. He has a terrible struggle with his search for the truth and feels as if he is standing at "The Gate". In the end though he feels he was unable to pass through the gate and gives up in despair. He goes back to his old life not much changed and resigned to his life.Its not a complicated story but in the simplicity there is a piercing beauty. In all the ordinary things that worry them and their shabby life there is such a feeling of longing. I totally recommend this book. Everyone should read it. Its one of my top ten favorites.