The Times of Botchan Third Volume

This is the fictionalized version of the life and times of Japanese author Natsume Soseki during an era of great change in Japan from the traditional Edo period into the modern Meiji period (1867 - 1912). Soseki is considered the Charles Dickens or Mark Twain of Japan. His image even appeared on the 1000 yen note for two decades. He is best known for his novel Botchan, on whose times this book is based, and the short I Am A Cat which is integrated into these pages. In this third volume we learn of the love between Army Medical Officer and poet Ōgai Mori and the German dancer Elise Weigert aka Autumn's BallerinaTaniguchi marries talent to a solid script by Sekikawa to create a fresco of Japanese society towards the end of the Meiji period as Japan was beginning to open up to the West. What could have been simply an illustrated textbook becomes, in these capable hands, a narrative for adults of great artistic and historical significance.