Two writers, Natsume Soseki and Shimazaki Toson, invented the modern Japanese novel.

Soseki is the eccentric novelist who appears on the 10,000 yen note. His contemporary, Shimazaki Toson, brought to Japanese fiction a lyricism previously seen only in poetry and nature writing.

As revered today as they were during their own lifetimes, these two writers boldly established the novel as a major literary form in Japan.