A preface to "buncho"

Natsume Soseki (1867-1916) wrote a number of zuihitsu (literary essays) about his pets, of which "Buncho" (1909) is the most delicately crafted. It is the story of a caged bird that was brought to the writer as a companion in his lonely study, but which in the end died of neglect, despite the initial attention it received. Along with Neko no haka (The cat's tomb, 1909), and the stories of Hector the dog as well as the two nameless cats in Garasudo no naka (Within the glass doors, 1915), "Buncho" addresses the themes of loneliness, abandonment, unexpressed love, betrayal, and regret found in almost all of Soseki's major novels. The buncho's tomb is the first of a series of tombs that the writer and his daughters erect for domestic animals whose existence is keenly felt only after their deaths. The silent passing of a bird in its cage becomes a harsh accusation rising out of the author's own sadness and guilt: a man and his family and servants have conspired to allow this gentle, dependent life to...