The Gate

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For the film of the same name, see The Gate (film).

For the entertainment venue in Newcastle upon Tyne, see The Gate, Newcastle.

For the development project in Abu Dhabi, see The Gate Shams Abu Dhabi.

The Gate (門, Mon^?) is a Japanese novel written in 1910 by Natsume Sōseki, author of I Am a Cat. It was a commercial success when published in Japan and has been translated into English by Francis Mathy.

The Gate concerns a middle-aged married couple, Oyone and Sosuke, who married for love in their student days. The couple first suffered exclusion from society due to their ill-advised marriage; as the novel opens, they languish in ennui because they no longer feel passion for one another. However, Oyone's ill health and a visit from Sosuke's younger brother provoke a marital crisis which becomes the central diegesis.

Thematically and by the author's own reckoning, The Gate is the third in a trilogy of novels begun by Sanshiro (1908) and And Then (それから, Sorekara^?) (1909). All three novels deal with the themes of self-knowledge and responsibility - on the one hand, accountability to society, and on the other, responsibility to one's own emotions. However, the three novels do not share characters.