Natsume Soseki 
Straw Pillow 

Straw Pillow is one of the important masterpieces of Natsume Soseki in the early period. The novel writes about "I" – A young painter, who, in order to avoid the secular concerns and seek for an "inhumish" world of beauty, came to a remote village, as well as what he saw, think and hear there. The work focuses on the people and scenery in the village, interspersed with a large number of "my" monologues on the theory of art and aesthetics, and compared the differences between Eastern and Western art. The most critical view of these monologues is "inhumanity". The so-called "inhumanity" is a realm beyond morality or humanity, an otherworldly condition, and also a kind of artistic aesthetics. Therefore, the Straw Pillow is not so much a novel, more like a work of Natsume Soseki on the art; both the description on the village style and the occasional haiku and poetry make the work more like a beautiful travel prose. In a word, Straw Pillow is a unique work that is very worth reading.