Ivy Le

Professor Laing

ENG 223

13, July 2020

Biographical Sketch of Matsuo Basho

Matsuo Basho, the most influential haiku poet has once said, ​“There came a day when the

clouds drifting along with the wind aroused a wanderlust in me, and I set off on a journey to

roam along the seashores”. His journey throughout life has given him experiences to write the

most profound haikus. Matsuo Basho’s writing maintains the timeless structure of a traditional

haiku. Even Though he was a contemporary writer he was different from the new middle class

culture because he was an old soul that wrote in a timeless traditional way. Matsuo Basho’s

journey was filled with aspiration to find himself which fueled his writing.

To start off, Matsuo Basho was born in Ueno, lga Province​, ​in 1644. His father was a low

ranking samurai which started him off in the direction of being in the military. He became a

servant to Tōdō Yoshitada who introduced him to literature. Once his master died in 1666, Basho

left in search of peace. He gave up his Samurai studies and went to travel Japan writing in his

journals. He left to go to Kyoto where he studied with Kigin. Kigin was a local distinguished

poet who helped further his knowledge of Haiku writing. During this time poets were taking the

hokku template to combine with natural imagery creating haiku.He traveled throughout Japan in

search of imagery, inspiration, and to fuel his love in writing haikus.

Carrying on, at age 29 Matsuo Basho set foot for Edo. He then published a volume of

verses in the style of Kai-Oi with the school Teitoku. In 1675, he wrote a linked verse sequence
 Le 1

with Nishiyama Soin of the Danrin school. Basho published many haikus under many different

names with numerous anthologies. There was a span of 4 years where he was not writing and

decided to build waterworks to make money. From this you could see that he wrote poetry based

on his experience when traveling. He kept writing because of his love for the art of Haiku. It did

not make him money, but his main reason was the peace it gave him to write haikus. However

later on, in 1680 he was able to be successful enough in his writing to use the money gained to

buy a cottage.

To add on, Basho started to study Zen Buddhism. The reason for this was with fame and

wealth it made him lonely and dissatisfied with where he was in life. This did not soothe his

anxiety, fears, and loneliness. Soon after, a fire took most of his city and his cottage which led

him to go back traveling in 1682. Closely following this his mother died in 1683. Because of this

huge moment in his journey, this gave him an experience and inspiration to write a new poetic

form. He created the form Haibun. He used a mixture of fragments of prose and haiku to

describe a journey as the structure of Haibun. The imagery involved in this new style is the

external images gained on route, and the internal imagery given in the writer’s mind.

During his journey, he made the most memorable experiences and kept writing poems in

his Travel Dairies. He published Winter Days with Nagoya disciple Yamamoto Kakei. He

traveled to many places to view the moon, to write with his disciple about springtime, and spread

his messages through his disciples about writing about the seasons. One particular time in his

travel diary was The Journey to Ou. This haiku was born from the hazardous trip he took from

Sendai to Shiogama. Compared to his more uplifting poems about the seasons, this poem

mentions his thoughts of death. It was a different dark tone from Matsuo Basho.
 Le 2

Following this, he eventually returned home in the summer of 1685 to Edo. He went back

to teaching poetry in his Basho Hut. There were many huts around Japan provided as a teaching

space to meet his disciples around the world. In the winter of 1691 he returned and bought in his

nephew and his female friend Jutei. Both of them were both recovering from an illness. He later

became uneasy and unfulfilled with his role as a teacher/mentor. He fell into a depression that

was clearly shown in his writing. He isolated himself from the world and his disciples for about a

month. He then turned to the principles of karumi. It is a semi-Buhddist philosophy of greeting

the world instead of separating himself from it. It was to embrace the light and the world. Shortly

after, he left Kyoto one last time in the summer of 1694. He spent some time in Ueno before

coming to Osaka. He fell very ill with a stomach illness and died surrounded by his disciples.

In consideration, Matsuo Basho was significant because he mastered the art of haiku and

then ventured out building more branches of hokku. He did this to vary the ways he could use

poetry as a way to describe his journey. He was different from many poets because not only did

he contribute to the earlier structures of haiku, he was the maker of many different branches, and

spread the art throughout Japan. Without him this beautiful art and skill would not have spread

and be learnt in the way it did. He shared his wisdom to many disciples to spread the love and

passion for this type of art. Not only was his poetry classic, it also added a unique feeling.

Additionally, many of his poems have grown famously as the authentic form of haiku

writing. His poems have been used countless times as the prime example of quality haiku

writing. One of his famous poems and my personal favorite is “​No one travels/ Along this way

but I/ This autumn evening”. I think out of all his poems this one stands out because of how

this haiku was about him personally. Usually he writes about the seasons and the things that
 Le 3

occur in nature, but this one specifically is about his journey in autumn. Out of the poems I

have read, this one provides the most mysterious and complex meaning. I believe Matsuo

Basho is trying to explain that this journey is something he is doing alone. In autumn not a

lot of people are traveling because of Japan’s extreme winter conditions, but he is traveling

for a certain goal or reason despite the conditions. In a way he has to take this journey

alone. This poem really explores the class outcomes of analyzing the haikus and

understanding the historical context. The analysis of this haiku would be different because

of the uniqueness of the poem. I had to explore previous haikus and his travels to

understand the context of the poem.

To end off, Matsuo Basho used his life as the inspiration for his writing. He did not

blatantly state out his problems, thoughts, troubles, memories, or his visions. Instead he used the

seasons, key words, syllables, and structure to tell his journey through feeling. Haiku was an art

that he turned as a messenger to tell his story. From his journey he suffered loss, anxiety, times

of depression, dissatisfaction, death, and lows of life. However he also experienced beauty,

seasons changing, meeting new people, spreading his message, and experiences. He used both as

the fuel to his haiku writing and messages.

 Le 4

Annotated Bibliography

Barnhill, David Landis. “THE JOURNALS OF MATSUO BASHO.”

www.uwosh.edu/facstaff/barnhill/es-244-basho/journals.pdf​. This journal was extremely

helpful in understanding the poems and time of Matsuo Basho. The author explains his

journey, goal, and who he was a person providing evidence from his journals. This

journal is a combination of an autobiography and an analysis of his work and Matsuo

Basho himself. It includes the explanation of the journal overall and not specific poems.
 Le 5

The author chooses to discuss why monks/priests are mentioned multiple times and how

travel was a big part of his life.

“Matsuo Basho.” ​Matsuo Basho - New World Encyclopedia,​ New World Encyclopedia, 2018,

www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Matsuo_Basho​. This website was extremely

helpful in plotting out the significant events of his life in chronological order. THis was

the second most useful website because of all the dates the author included. It was also

the most informative on his family background since not much is documented about his

parents or siblings. One of the subtopics of literary criticism was unique compared to the

other websites because it discusses the controversial opinions back then and now. It also

gave the most information about his death.

Matsuo Basho Facts,​ Your Dictionary, 2010, biography.yourdictionary.com/matsuo-basho.

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/basho​ Out of all the websites, this was the least

useful. It was the first website I came across so it provided the basic understanding of his

life. It provided it’s purpose of a good introduction to my research. It lacked detail about

his childhood, travels, and death.

"Matsuo Basho." ​YourDictionary​. LoveToKnow.

https://biography.yourdictionary.com/matsuo-basho​ This website is the most useful. The

reason for this is the amount of information was the biggest and most specific. They

organized everything chronologically, including inspiration for most of his work

(chronologically as well), very descriptive childhood, death, and travels. This website

was the most specific of his travels and when he went back home including the reasons
 Le 6

for it. The website was very specific on his hardships and the people he met on his

journeys.

Sebazco, Raul Santiago, director. ​Matsuo Basho​. ​Youtube​, 2010,

www.youtube.com/watch?v=zXvzgR3A9_I​. This youtube video provided a good visual

understanding of his life. It also mapped out his travels and showed how far, where, and

routes he took on his travels. It provided pictures of the conditions he traveled with too. It

did not provide any new information about his childhood, death, or travels. It just gave

visual representation.

The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica, and Amy Tikkanen. “Bashō.” ​Encyclopædia

Britannica​, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 1 Jan. 2020,

www.britannica.com/biography/Basho-Japanese-poet​. This website also lacked a lot of

information. It gave an overall outlook of his life and focused on how his travels

impacted his writing. I would say it was informational on how he started to write. His

young adulthood was very descriptive in this. However all the other points of his life

were vague. The website really focused on the connection of how he started haiku and

how certain points of his life impacted specific haikus.