BASHO
Basho (bah-shoh), pseudonym of Matsuo Munefusa
(1644-94), Japanese poet, considered the finest writer of Japanese haiku
during the formative years of the genre. Born into a samurai family prominent
among nobility, Basho rejected that world and became a wanderer, studying
Zen, history, and classical Chinese poetry, living in apparently blissful
poverty under a modest patronage and from donations by his many students.
From 1667 he lived in Edo (now Tokyo), where he began to compose haiku.
The structure of his haiku reflects the simplicity
of his meditative life. When he felt the need for solitude, he withdrew
to his basho-an, a hut made of plantain leaves (basho)-hence
his pseudonym. Basho infused a mystical quality into much of his verse
and attempted to express universal themes through simple natural images,
from the harvest moon to the fleas in his cottage. Basho brought to haiku
"the Way of Elegance" (fuga-no-michi), deepened its Zen influence,
and approached poetry itself as a way of life (kado, the way of
poetry) in the belief that poetry could be a source of enlightenment. "Achieve
enlightenment, then return to this world of ordinary humanity," he advised.
And, "Do not follow in the footsteps of the old masters, but seek what
they sought." His "way of elegance" did not include the mere trappings
associated with elegance; he sought the authentic vision of "the ancients."
His attention to the natural world transformed this verse form from a frivolous
social pastime into a major genre of Japanese poetry.
In the last ten years of his life Basho made
several journeys, drawing from them more images to inspire his contemplative
poetry. He also collaborated with local poets on the linked-verse forms
known as renga. In addition to being the supreme artist of haiku
and renga, Basho wrote haibun, brief prose-and-poetry travelogues
such as Oku-no-hosomichi (The Narrow Road to the Far North; 1689;
Eng. trans., 1974), that are absolutely nonpareil in the literature of
the world.