The Miner

The Miner began serialization on 1 January 1908 in the Asahi Shimbun newspaper. The novel's setting was suggested to Sōseki by a man who worked in the Ashio Copper Mine following his own romantic problems. The man visited Sōseki and insisted on selling his story as the basis for a novel. Apart from these basic plot elements, the novel was, according to Jay Rubin, a "direct result of [Sōseki's] continuing exploration of his own internal landscape." Sōseki took twelve pages of notes from the man. The first two-fifths of the book are based on story material from the first half-page of these notes, and this is the novel's most unconventional section. The remainder of the story follows the notes…