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See also: The Tale of Genji 47 ■ On the Road 264–65M
atsuo Bashoˉ (c.1644–
1694) of Edo (modern
Tokyo) was the master
of the haiku, a short Japanese verse
form. Rendered in English in three
or (more rarely) four lines, the haiku
captures a fleeting moment, often
with poignancy as well as sharp
observation. But Bashoˉ ’s greatest
work is in a composite genre—
the haibun—in which haiku is
embedded in a prose narrative.A noble journey
Bashoˉ ’s goal in The Narrow Road to
the Interior was to record a spiritual
pilgrimage to the far north of the
country, undertaken in the spirit
of Zen Buddhism and to honor
poets who had traveled before him.
On this journey, direct encounters
with nature, enriched by cultural
associations, and visits to Shinto
shrines, confirm Bashoˉ ’s liberation
from selfish attachments. The
poetry and the prose are in perfect
equilibrium, illuminating each
other like a pair of mirrors facing
inward. Journeying mostly
on foot, for hundreds of miles,Bashoˉ searches for wisdom,
relating his discoveries in prose
that is vivid and frequently tinged
with elegiac melancholy—even
a reference to “pines shaped by
salty winds, trained by them
into bonsai” appears solemn and
resigned. His haiku achieve the
sought-after quality of k e n s h oˉ ,
or glimpse of enlightenment—
a brief awakening into truth. ■SADLY, I PART FROM YOU;
LIKE A CLAM TORN
FROM ITS SHELL I GO,
AND AUTUMN TOO
THE NARROW ROAD TO THE INTERIOR (1702),
MATSUO BASHO ̄
IN CONTEXT
FOCUS
Haiku and haibunBEFORE
1686 Matsuo Bashoˉ composes
one of his most famous haiku,
about a frog plopping with a
splash into an ancient pond.
It inspires a competition on
the same theme among other
haiku writers in Edo.AFTER
1744 The great haiku poet
Yosa Buson publishes his
travel notes after following
in the footsteps of Bashoˉ.1819 Kobayashi Issa proves
a worthy successor to Bashoˉ
with The Spring of My Life,
combining prose and haiku
in a haibun. Issa was prolific,
writing around 20,000 haiku,
including 230 on the firefly.
1885 Masaoka Shika starts
to write haiku on portraits he
draws—he advocates writing
from life, in the field, as an
artist would paint a landscape.Those who float away
their lives on boats or who
grow old leading horses are
forever travelling, and their
homes are wherever those
travels take them.
The Narrow Road
to the InteriorUS_092-093_Road_Suicides.indd 92 08/10/2015 13:04