caption native_name_lang death_date death_place birth_name birth_place influences influenced notableworks native_name birth_date alt genre image article_title name occupation
natsume in 1912 japanese 9 december 1916 tokyo , empire of japan natsume kinnosuke 夏目 金之助 tokyo , empire of japan stories virtually all subsequent japanese novelists , karatani kōjin '' i am a cat '' kokoro '' , '' botchan '' , '' 夏目 金之助 9 february 1867 natsume in 1912 novels , short stories , poetry soseki.jpg natsume sōseki
 natsume sōseki writer
natsume sōseki

, born was a japanese novelist of the meiji period -lrb- 1868 -- 1912 -rrb- .
he is best known for his novels `` kokoro '' , `` botchan '' , `` i am a cat '' and his unfinished work `` light and darkness '' .
he was also a scholar of british literature and composer of haiku , `` kanshi '' , and fairy tales .
from 1984 until 2004 , his portrait appeared on the front of the japanese 1000 yen note .
in japan , he is often considered the greatest writer in modern japanese history .
he has had a profound effect on almost all important japanese writers since .
