"Botchan" is a novel written by Natsume Sōseki (real name: Kin'nosuke Natsume) in 1906. . Among the classics of modern Japanese literature, "Botchan" is probably the most frequently read novel and the most often anthologized work in Japan. . Its action is set in the 1890's, during the Meiji Restoration, when Japan was making its cataclysmic metamorphosis from a cloistered feudal state to a major modern world power. The novel focuses on a few months in the experience of a neophyte teacher nicknamed Botchan (young master) . Born and educated in Tokyo, he has accepted a job teaching mathematics at a middle school in provincial Shikoku. Botchan's personality, values, and Tokyo manners clash with those of his new environment, and out of this conflict Sseki spins a comic tale that satirizes contemporary Japanese mores. The novel is narrated in the first person, and a substantial portion of its humor stems from Botchan's verbose and vigorous Tokyo dialect, which, by all accounts, Sōseki has brilliantly captured...
