Japanese
坊っちゃん
Botchan
Natsume Sōseki
Japan’s best-loved novel: one long, glorious burst of temper, and the friendliest door into the language.
Editions
Forthcoming
The app
Learn Japanese by reading Sōseki. The original beside a clear translation, read aloud, with every word glossed.
The opening
Tap a line to unfold its translation. In the app, every word unfolds too.
The book
Sōseki wrote Botchan in a matter of days, and it reads like it: one long, glorious burst of temper. A Tokyo hothead takes a teaching post in the provinces and finds the school stocked with flatterers and schemers. Against them he has nothing but his inherited recklessness and an honesty he cannot switch off. It is the funniest book in modern Japanese, and under the comedy runs the question Sōseki never let go: what does it cost to stay decent among the smooth? Japan’s best-loved novel, and the friendliest door into its language.
In the app
The original and the translation, side by side.
The author’s words align line by line with a clear English translation: two columns on iPad, a paired reading flow on iPhone.
Every line, read aloud.
Hear how the language actually sounds: its weight, its rhythm, not just how it looks on the page.
Notes for the line you’re on.
Tap any line for the grammar, the words, and the context behind it, written by us, for this text. An editor at your elbow.
Read aloud, and hear how you did.
Read a line yourself and the edition scores it on your phone: the whole line first, then sound by sound. Your voice never leaves the device.
The particulars
- The text
- 坊っちゃん, Natsume Sōseki
- Translation
- Public-domain Japanese (Natsume Sōseki, d. 1916; published 1906). English translation © 2026 1732 Studios, LLC.
- Method
- The translations are our own, drafted with machine assistance and verified line by line. How the editions are made.
- The app
- The first chapter is free: the complete app, every feature. One unlock covers the rest, yours forever, $4.99. No subscription, no ads.
- Privacy
- Speech analysis runs on device. Your reading and your voice never leave your phone.