Audio in the Japanese Language
Oku no Hosomichi (meaning Narrow Road to Oku [the Deep North]) is a major work by Matsuo BashÅ.
Oku no Hosomichi was written based on a journey taken by BashÅ in the late spring of 1689. He and his traveling companion Sora departed from Edo (modern-day Tokyo) for the northerly interior region known as Oku, propelled mostly by a desire to see the places about which the old poets wrote. Travel in those days was, of course, very dangerous to one’s health, but BashÅ was committed to a kind of poetic ideal of wandering. He travelled for about 156 days all together, covering thousands of miles mostly on foot. Of all of BashÅ’s works, Oku no Hosomichi is best known.
Matsuo BashÅ (æ¾å°¾ èŠè•‰?, 1644 – November 28, 1694), born Matsuo Kinsaku (æ¾å°¾ 金作?), then Matsuo ChÅ«emon Munefusa (æ¾å°¾ å¿ å³è¡›é–€ 宗房?), was the most famous poet of the Edo period in Japan. During his lifetime, BashÅ was recognized for his works in the collaborative haikai no renga form; today, after centuries of commentary, he is recognized as the greatest master of haiku (at the time called hokku). His poetry is internationally renowned, and in Japan many of his poems are reproduced on monuments and traditional sites. Although BashÅ is justifiably famous in the west for his hokku, he himself believed his best work lay in leading and participating in renku. He is quoted as saying, “Many of my followers can write hokku as well as I can. Where I show who I really am is in linking haikai verses.
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