A Rainy Day in Natsume Sōseki’s Kumamoto

Exploring the Kyūshū Landmarks of Japan’s Greatest Modern Novelist

The Museum of the Former Fifth High School, Kumamoto University/All Photos by Hope Anderson

Most people visit Kumamoto to see its extraordinary black-and-white castle, perhaps the finest in Japan. Some come for the famous local delicacy, basashi—thinly sliced raw horse meat—which is served as sashimi or sushi. I, on the other hand, was there to see two old houses and a handsome Meiji Era school. All are now museums dedicated to Natsume Sōseki, the towering novelist who lived and worked in them.