Bashō was a renowned 17th century Japanese haiku poet known for his travel journals and poetry that fused with nature. In his later years, he undertook a journey along the northern coastal route of Japan's main island to gain spiritual enlightenment. His famous travel journal, The Narrow Road to the Deep North, documents the hardships he faced on his journey including insect bites while sleeping, difficult mountain passages, and exhaustion. However, he also found enlightenment in nature's beauty and solitude, as shown in his poems about wisteria flowers and cicadas among temple rocks.

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Travel, Poetry, Awareness

2. Matsuo Bashō
• Japanese haiku poet: known for
his poetry and his prose
• Trained in poetry, Buddhism,
Taoism, Confucianism, Shintoism
• Believed that poetry provided an
alternative set of values, which
he called the “Way of Elegance”
• Deeply influenced by the
Chinese poets of the T’ang
Dynasty
• Influenced by Zen philosophy

3. Bashō’s
Early Biography

4. Bashō Tree
I planted in my garden
A stock of Bashō tree,
And hated at once
The shooting bush-clovers.
The tree does bear flowers, but
unlike other flowers, there is
nothing gay about them. The big
trunk of the tree is untouched by
the axe, for it is utterly useless
as building wood. I love the tree,
however, for its very
uselessness . . . I sit underneath
it, and enjoy the wind and rain
that blow against it.
“

6. Why a life of travel
and wayfaring?
• To spread the word of his poetic
style and philosophy and gain new
disciples
• To journey into nature; to fuse with
the natural world
• To journey into history and tradition;
to fuse with the ancient past
• To gain spiritual enlightenment; to
liberate the self from attachments
• To embody the nature of the
universe Basho Meets Two Travelers
by Tsukioka Yoshitoshi

7. Bashō’s Travel Journals
• Journal of Bleached Bones in a Field (Nozarashi kiko). First travel
journal (published in 1687; travels in 1685)
• Kashima Journal (published in 1687, the same year as his second,
short trip, this time to see the autumn moon at Kashima Shrine.)
Second travel journal
• Knapsack Notebook (Oino kobumi). Third journal, concerns a
lengthy trip west from Edo from November 1687 to May 1688.
• Sarashina Journal (Sarashina nikki). The fourth journal, he traveled
to the village of Sarashina to view the autumn moon.
• The Narrow Road to the Deep North (Oku no hosomichi). The
fifth journey and journal, from which arises one of the great prose
works of Japanese literature.

8. The Narrow Road to the Deep North
(Oku no hosomichi)
Published in 1702. Written based on his journey in the late spring of 1689.

9. Oku no hosomichi
“oku” means “within” and
“farthest” or “dead-end”
place
hosomichi means “path”
or “narrow road”; the no is
prepositional
The term oku refers to the
northern “back-country”
of the main Japanese
island of Honshu, and it
also means “deep” in the
sense of interior, such as
the depths of a mountain
and spiritual depths.
Other translations:
The Narrow Road to the Deep North
The Narrow Road to the Interior
Oku no hosomichi
meaning "Narrow road
to the interior”

10. Bashō’s Journey

11. Bashō&Sora Artist: Yosa Buson

12. Most of the things I had brought for my journey
turned out to be impediments, and I had
thrown them away. However, I still carried my
paper robe, my straw raincoat, ink stone,
brush, paper, lunch box, and other things on
my back—quite a load for me. More and more
my legs grew weaker and my body lost
strength. Making wretched progress, with
knees trembling, I carried on as best I could,
but I was utterly weary.
Travel & Attachments
“

13. Bitten by fleas and lice,
I slept in a bed,
A horse urinating all the time
Close to my pillow.
What the gate-keeper had told me turned out to be true. The mountains
were so thickly covered with foliage and the air underneath was so hushed
that I felt as if I were groping my way in the dead of night. There was not
even the cry of a single bird to be heard, and the wind seemed to breathe
out black soot through every rift in the hanging clouds. I pushed my way
through thick undergrowth of bamboo, crossing many streams and
stumbling over many rocks, till at last I arrived at the village of Mogami
after much shedding of cold sweat. My guide congratulated me by saying
that I was indeed fortunate to have crossed the mountains in safety, for
accidents of some sort had always happened on his past trips. I thanked
him sincerely and parted from him. However, fear lingered in my mind
some time after that. (page 120-121)
Challenges of the Wayfaring Life
“

14. Suffering&Enlightenment
Fleas, lice,
a horse pissing
by my bed.
Bitten by fleas and lice,
I slept in a bed,
A horse urinating all the time
Close to my pillow.
Plagued by fleas and lice
I hear a horse stalling
What a place to sleep!
A monk asked a Zen Master, “How can I avoid the summer’s heat
and the winter’s cold?” “Go where there is no heat in summer or
cold in winter.” “Where is that?” asked the monk. “When it is hot,
sweat; when it is cold, shiver,” replied the master.
Zen Koan

15. Exhausted
seeking an inn:
wisteria flowers.
Bashō

16. The whole mountain was made of massive rocks thrown
together and covered with age-old pines and oaks. The
stony ground itself bore the color of eternity, paved with
velvety moss. The doors of the shrines built on the rocks
were firmly barred and there was no sound to be heard.
As I moved on all fours from rock to rock, bowing
reverently at each shrine, I felt the purifying power of this
holy environment pervading my whole being.
Page 122-123
In the utter silence
Of a temple,
A cicada's voice alone
Penetrates the rocks.
“
Environment and Enlightenment

17. Sick on my journey,
only my dreams will wander
these desolate moors
Bashō’s
Death Poem