Who was Basho?
Matsuo Basho was born at the beginning of the Edo period in in present-day Iga City, Mie prefecture. As a youngster he served the family of Todo Shinshichiro, a samurai general in charge of the Iga region. During this period he attended to Todo Yoshitada. Yoshitada, who acquired the haikai name of Sengin, enjoyed writing in verse, and as a consequence Basho also came into contact and grew fond of haikai.
However, it was only after Yoshitada passed away and Basho left the Todo family home that he decided to take the haikai path in earnest. The break from the service of the samurai family awoke Basho to the freedom of the haikai world as he set out on his new journey. At the age of 28, Basho compiled an anthology of verses in a book entitled the Kai Oi (Shell Matching), which he dedicated to the Ueno Tenjingu (Ueno Tenjin Shrine), place of the Ubusunagami (god that protects the land of one's birth).
After this Basho left for Edo (present-day Tokyo), and evolved his own haikai style. The trend at the time was to write in a comical and fanciful style, but Basho, dissatisfied with this kind of haikai, attempted his own style that would truly touch the hearts o
Biography of Matsuo Basho
Discover the life and legacy of Matsuo Basho, Japan&#;s most celebrated haiku poet. Explore his journey, poetic achievements, and influence on Japanese literature in this comprehensive biography.
Matsuo Basho: Brief Biography
Matsuo Basho was a Japanese haiku poet and writer who lived during the Edo period in Japan (). He was born in in the city of Ueno, in Iga Province (modern-day Mie Prefecture), and died in in Osaka.
Matsuo Basho was known for his innovative approach to haiku, a traditional form of Japanese poetry that typically consists of 17 syllables arranged in a pattern. He is considered one of the greatest haiku poets in the history of Japanese literature and is credited with elevating haiku to an art form.
Basho&#;s life was marked by a series of travels, including a long journey through the northern provinces of Japan in , which is documented in his famous travel diary, &#;The Narrow Road to the Deep North.&#; This diary, which was written in a mixture of poetry and prose, describes Basho&#;s encounters with people, landscapes, and nature, and reflects his philosophical and spiritual beliefs.
In addition to his travels, Matsuo Basho was also a teacher and ment
Matsuo Bashō: A Literary Wanderer
There was a time when I envied those who had government offices or impressive domains, and on another occasion I considered entering the precincts of the Buddha and the teaching rooms of the patriarchs. Instead, I’ve worn out my body in journeys that are as aimless as the winds and clouds, and expended my feelings on flowers and birds. But somehow I’ve been able to make a living this way, and so in the end, unskilled and talentless as I am, I give myself wholly to this one concern, poetry.
Matsuo Bashō (–94) wrote this self-description when he was in his late forties, in the work “Genjūan no ki” (the excerpt above is from Burton Watson’s translation, “The Hut of the Phantom Dwelling”). One might rephrase it, in short, as his assertion that he could only live through literature—namely haikai.
Haikai is an abbreviation of haikai no renga, a lighter, more humorous version of the renga linked verse that emerged from Japan’s elevated waka poetry tradition. The term haikai came to be used more widely to describe individual poems—now commonly known as haiku—and prose
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