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The Heredity of Taste
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Wikipedia article
is a novella by Japanese writer Natsume Sseki. Written in eight days in December 1905 and published in the January 1906 issue of the magazine 'Teikoku Bungaku' ("Imperial Literature"), it is a story about the aftermath of the Russo-Japanese War of 19045 and reveals Sseki's attitude to war.
Plot
The novella first recounts the narrator's arrival at a train station where Japanese soldiers are returning from the Russo-Japanese War of 19045. The narrator sees a soldier who bear a striking resemblance to a late friend K-san, an infantry lieutenant who was killed in a trench during that war. He later visits K-san's grave at a temple and discovers that a mysterious young woman has also been visiting the bachelor soldier. Spurred on by curiosity, the narrator visits K-san's mother where he finds his friend's diary and reads that K-san had met a beautiful young woman at a post office. After investigations, the narrator proffers his own theory on the heredity of taste the woman and K-san find each other attractive owing to a bond which had previously existed between their ancestors decades ago.
Translations
'The Heredity of Taste' is available in two translations, both published under the Tuttle imprint. The first is a 1974 translation by Akito It and Graeme Wilson, which also offers two other early works by Sseki, 'Ten Nights of Dream' and 'Hearing Things'. The newer version is a standalone 2004 translation by Sammy I. Tsunematsu.
Category:1906 novels
Category:Novels by Natsume Sseki
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