History Creator / MatsuoBasho

On November 25, 1694, Bashō lay on his deathbed, having developed a stomach illness from exerting himself too much in his last weeks, but he composed one last poem: "On a journey stricken / Dreams a-wandering around / stalks and stubble-fields" (tabi ni yande / yume was kareno o / kakemeguru); he died peacefully three days later, surrounded by his disciples.

[[caption-width-right:350:Portrait by Hosukai circa late 18th century.]]

Matsuo Bashō (松尾 芭蕉, 1644 – November 28, 1694) was a Japanese poet of the Edo period. During his lifetime, he was known for his work on a collaborative form of comic poetry called ''hakai no renga'' (俳諧の連歌), or "renku" (連句) for short. Today, he is considered one of the masters of {{haiku}} [then called "hokku" (発句), the starting verse of renku].

Matsuo Bashō (松尾 芭蕉, 1644 – November 28, 1694) was a Japanese poet of the Edo period. During his lifetime, he was known for his work on a collaborative formofcomic poetry called ''hakai no renga'' (俳諧の連歌), or "renku" (連句) for short. Today, he is considered one of the masters of {{haiku}} [then called "hokku" (発句), the starting verse of renku].

He was born Matsuo Kinsaku in 1644, near Ueno, in Iga Province. The Matsuo family was of samurai descent, and his father was probably a ''musokunin'' (無足人), a class of landowning peasants granted certain privileges of samurai. In his late teens, Kinsaku took the name "Chūemon Munefusa" and became the servant of Tōdō Yoshitada. He shared Yoshitada's love for ''hakai no renga'', and they wrote together under ''haigō'' (俳号), a type of PenName used for ''haikai''; Munefusa's was Sōbō (宗房), which was simply the on'yomi (Sino-Japanese reading) of his name while Yoshitada's was "Sengin". In 1662, the first extant poem of Munefusa was published, and two years later, he published his first hokku in the anthology called ''Sayono-nakayama Shū''. In 1665, Munefusa and Yoshitada collaborated with a group of poets in writing a ''hyakuin'', or one-hundred-verse hakai.

Munefusa's early years in Edo were not easy; for four years, he had to supplement his income through a waterworks department so that he could earn a living. Even so, he managed to have established a reputation in Edo's poetic circles. In 1675, Nishiyama Sōin, a poet and founder of the Danrin school of haikai, visited Edo and invited Munefusa to compose poetry with him. With that, Munefusa changed his haigō to ''Tōsei''.

Matsuo Bashō (松尾 芭蕉, 1644 – November 28, 1694) was a Japanese poet of the Edo period. During his lifetime, he was known for his work on a collaborative formofcomic poetry called ''hakai no renga'' (俳諧の連歌), or "renku" (連句) for short. Today, he is considered one of the masters of {{haiku}} [then called "hokku" (発句), the starting verse of renku.

Matsuo Bashō (松尾 芭蕉, 1644 – November 28, 1694) was a Japanese poet of the Edo period. During his lifetime, he was known for his work on ''hakai no renga'', a collaborative form of poetry, but today, he is considered one of the masters of {{haiku}} (then called "hokku").

Despite his success, Bashō was very lonely, so he turned to Zen under the guidance of Butchō; Chinese Daoism and Zen became major influences in the poetry of Bashō. In the winter of 1682, there was a fire in Tenna, the ''Tenna no Taikai'', that burned the Bashō-an, and Bashō managed to escape, but this affected him greatly, along with the death of his mother early in 1683, whose funeral he could not attend. Bashō was invited stay by his sometime student Takayama Biji to spend time in the Yamura domain in Kai Province, returning to Edo to oversee the publication of ''Minashiguri'' (虚栗), or ''Shriveled Chestnuts'', and he even moved into a new Bashō-an in Fukagawa, financed by the charity of his students, disciples, and other benefactors.

For the next ten years of his life, Bashō's life followed this pattern: extensive journeys, renga gatherings and visits with local poets, periods of recovery from the exertions of travel, the composition and revision of poems, collation of material for his travel journals, supervision of publications, both his own and of the Bashō School. In 1685, Bashō returned to Edo, happily resuming his job as a teacher of poetry in his Bashō-an, though he privately made plans for another journey. He even published ''Haru no Hi'' (春の日), ''Spring Days'' in 1686, which became the source of one of his most famous poems: "An olden pond now / A songfrog springs off into / the sound of water" (furuike ya / kawazu tobikomu / mizu no oto). That same spring, in April, this poem led to a series of other poems, producing a collection that would later be published as ''Kawazu Awase'' (蛙合) ''The Frog Contest''.

The last few months of Bashō's life were filled with activity; he even managed to publish ''Betsuzashiki'' (別座鋪) ''The Detached Room'' and ''Sumidawara'' (炭俵) ''A Sack of Charcoal'', to critical acclaim. In the meantime, he managed to reach Iga at the end of Jun, visited the Ōtsu area, and stayed again at Rakushi-sha, where he received students and friends, and attended haikai gatherings in Kyoto, Iga, and Osaka; he only missed one haikai gathering because he was too sick to attend, but even then, he sent his hokku to the host.

By 1680, Tōsei had gained twenty disciples of his own, and one of the anthologies they published was ''Tōsei-montei Dokugin-Nijukasen'' (桃青門弟独吟二十歌仙), or ''The Best Poems of Tōsei's Twenty Disciples''. At that winter, Tōsei resorted to a more reclusive life by moving across the River Sumida to Fukagawa. His disciples built him a hut there and planted in the yard a Japanese banana tree, or a ''bashō'' (芭蕉). This hut became known as ''Bashō-an'' (芭蕉庵), or the ''bashō hut'', and it gave Tōsei both a new ''haigō'', "Bashō".

This, however, did little to lift Bashō's spirits, as he developed an "inclination for displaced life". In September 1684, Bashō set out and began a series of travels, this one to his hometown of Iga, also visiting Kyoto, Ōtsu, and Atsuta Shrine along the way. This journey ended up providing the material that would result in ''Nozarashi Kikō'' (野ざらし紀行), or ''The Journey of Weather-Exposed Bones'' (1684), and it was through travel that Bashō found the solace he long sought. His poetry also became less introspective and more about what he observed. During a visit to Nagoya, Bashō published ''Fuyo no Hi'' (冬の日), or ''Winter Days'', the first major anthology of the Shōmon, or the "Bashō School".

He was born Matsuo Kinsaku in 1644, near Ueno, in Iga Province. The Matsuo family was of samurai descent, and his father was probably a ''musokunin'' (無足人), a class of landowning peasants granted certain privileges of samurai. In his late teens, Kinsaku took the name Chūemon Munefusa and became the servant of Tōdō Yoshitada. He shared Yoshitada's love for ''hakai no renga'', and they wrote together under ''haigō'' (俳号), a type of PenName used for ''haikai''; Munefusa's was Sōbō (宗房), which was simply the on'yomi (Sino-Japanese reading) of his name while Yoshitada's was Sengin. In 1662, the first extant poem of Munefusa was published, and two years later he published his first hokku in the anthology called ''Sayono-nakayama Shū''. In 1665, Munefusa and Yoshitada collaborated with a group of poets in writing a ''hyakuin'', or one-hundred-verse hakai.

By 1680, Tōsei had gained twenty disciples of his own, and one of the anthologies they published was ''Tōsei-montei Dokugin-Nijukasen'' (桃青門弟独吟二十歌仙), or ''The Best Poems of Tōsei's Twenty Disciples''. At that winter, Tōsei resorted to a more reclusive life by moving across the River Sumida to Fukagawa. His disciples built him a hut there and planted in the yard a Japanese banana tree, or a ''bashō'' (芭蕉). This gave Tōsei a new ''haigō'' and his first permanent home.

-->--'''Matsuo Bashō''', ''13''

Matsuo Bashō (松尾 芭蕉, 1644 – November 28, 1694) was a Japanese poet of the Edo period. During his lifetime, he was known for his work on ''hakai no renga'', a collaborative form of poetry, but today, he is considered one of the masters of {{haiku}} (then called "hokku").