High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Natsume S seki (February 9, 1867 December 9, 1916), born Natsume Kinnosuke, is widely considered to be the foremost Japanese novelist of the Meiji Era (1868 1912). He is best known for his novels Kokoro, Botchan, I Am a Cat and his unfinished work Light and Darkness. He was also a scholar of British literature and composer of haiku, Chinese-style poetry, and fairy tales. From 1984 until 2004, his portrait appeared on the front of the Japanese 1000 yen note.