This was one of the typical middle-class town houses in the Hongo district of Tokyo of the Meiji period. It was originally built for Dr. Nakajima, but later Ogai Mori (1862-1922), renowned novelist, poet, critic and army doctor, lived in this house from 1890 to 1892, and then Natsume Sōseki (1867-1916) rented it from 1903 to 1905. Here Soseki wrote his famous novel ‘I’m a Cat,’ which immediately made him the most popular novelist of the time. Therefore, the house was called among Tokyoites the ‘House of the Cat’.
As a dwelling, this house can be considered to be a forerunner of residential modernization for the placing of a Japanese-style room projected from the vestibule and the center corridor connecting the kitchen and drawing rooms.
Building area 129.5m2
