Kokoro

Kokoro (こゝろ, or in post-war orthography こころ) is a novel by the Japanese author Natsume Sōseki. It was first published in 1914 in serial form in the Japanese newspaper Asahi Shimbun. The title translated literally means "heart". The word contains shades of meaning—notions of the heart and also of mind—and can be translated as "affection", "spirit", "resolve", "courage", "sentiment", or "the heart of things". During the novel's initial serial run, from April 20 to August 11, 1914, it was printed under the title Kokoro: Sensei no Isho (心 先生の遺書, Kokoro: Sensei's Testament). When later published in novel form by Iwanami Shoten, its title was shortened to Kokoro; the rendering of the word "kokoro" itself was also changed from kanji (心) to hiragana (こころ).Along with Osamu Dazai's No Longer Human, Kokoro is one of the best-selling novels of all time in Japan, having sold more than seven million copies in the country as of 2016.