The Gate

The Gate (門, Mon) is a 1910 Japanese novel by Natsume Sōseki, originally serialized in the Asahi Shimbun newspaper from March to June 1910. It is the final part of an informal trilogy with Sanshirō (1908) and And Then (Sorekara, 1909), all exploring self-knowledge, responsibility to society, and responsibility to one’s own emotions. The novel centers on Sosuke and Oyone, a middle-aged couple living quietly on the margins of Tokyo. They married for love against their families’ wishes years earlier; Oyone had been the wife of Sosuke’s former friend Yasui, and both carry guilt and shame for their past. Unable to have children, they live in a fragile equilibrium until financial pressures grow—especially when Sosuke must help pay for his younger brother’s education. When Sosuke’s landlord befriends Yasui and plans to bring him for a visit, the past threatens to resurface. Desperate and conflicted, Sosuke travels to a remote Zen monastery in Kamakura seeking peace and enlightenment through meditation. His stay at the temple, drawn from Sōseki’s own experience, leads only to the realization that his efforts at spiritual resolution are unlikely to succeed. Critic Pico Iyer has called The Gate “a book about what never comes to pass”—a quiet, melancholy story of ordinary lives, moral burden, and the limits of both social acceptance and spiritual escape. Sōseki considered it his favorite among his novels. The narrative emphasizes internal states and atmosphere over plot, portraying characters in psychological and spiritual tension.