Who was this person?
An early Edo poet who raised haikai verse to a true art. Born in Iga, he became a haikai master in Edo and lived in the Bashō hut in Fukagawa. He travelled widely and wrote travel journals, turning his 1689 journey through Tōhoku and Hokuriku into The Narrow Road to the Deep North. He is famed for the haiku "the old pond, a frog jumps in, the sound of water".
| Name | Matsuo Bashō (松尾芭蕉) |
|---|---|
| Born–died | 1644 – 1694 |
| Period | Edo period |
| Birthplace | Iga Province (now Iga, Mie) |
| Also known as | Matsuo Munefusa, Tōsei |
| Main achievements |
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Born at Iga-Ueno (Mie) into a farming family of near-samurai status.
Around this time he served Tōdō Yoshitada, young heir of a Tōdō branch, and studied haikai poetry with him.
Yoshitada died young, leaving Bashō deeply saddened. He continued writing haikai in his home town.
He dedicated his anthology Kai Ōi to a shrine at home and moved to Edo, where he made his name as a haikai master.
Leaving central Edo, he moved to a thatched hut at Fukagawa. From the bashō (banana) plant a disciple gave him, he took the name Bashō.
He set out on a journey home and wrote the travel diary Nozarashi Kikō, beginning his life of composing verse on the road.
He composed "The old pond— a frog jumps in, the sound of water." Catching a small sound within stillness, this poem is said to have made haikai a profound art.
With his disciple Sora he left Edo on a long journey through the northeast and Hokuriku, which became the basis of Oku no Hosomichi.
Staying in Kyoto and Ōmi, he compiled the anthology Sarumino with his disciples, and came to prize karumi, lightness that finds depth in everyday life.
On a journey he fell ill in Osaka, and died leaving the verse "Sick on a journey, my dreams wander over withered fields."
A. An early Edo poet who raised haikai verse to a true art. Born in Iga, he became a haikai master in Edo and lived in the Bashō hut in Fukagawa. He travelled widely and wrote travel journals, turning his 1689 journey through Tōhoku and Hokuriku into The Narrow Road to the Deep North. He is famed for the haiku "the old pond, a frog jumps in, the sound of water".
A. Period: Edo period. Born in 1644, died in 1694.
A. Matsuo Bashō was born in Iga Province (now Iga, Mie).
A. A travel journal, mixing prose and haiku, of the roughly 150-day journey Bashō made in 1689 with his disciple Kawai Sora from Edo through Tōhoku and Hokuriku to Ōgaki. It includes "summer grasses, all that remains of warriors’ dreams".
See also: Wikipedia (ja) / Wikipedia (en) / Wikipedia (fr) / Wikipedia (zh) / Wikidata
Follow this life (autoplay)KeichūTokugawa IetsunaIhara SaikakuSeki TakakazuTokugawa TsunayoshiChikamatsu MonzaemonArai HakusekiOgata Kōrin
People of the Edo period ・ People by period
Based on facts found in textbooks and biographies. Uncertain points are marked as such.