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Matsuo Basho (1644 - 1694 / Iga Province / Japan)
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Bashō was born Matsuo Kinsaku around 1644, somewhere near Ueno in Iga Province. His father may have been a low-ranking samurai, which would have promised Bashō a career in the military but not much chance of a notable life. It was traditionally claimed by biographers that he worked in the kitchens. However, as a child Bashō became a servant to Tōdō Yoshitada, who shared with Bashō a love for haikai no renga, a form of cooperative poetry composition. The sequences were opened with a verse in the 5-7-5 mora format; this verse was named a hokku, and would later be renamed haiku when presented as stand-alone works. The hokku would be followed by a related 7-7 ... more »
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Popular Poems
- A Ball of Snow
- A bee
- A caterpillar
- A cicada shell
- A cold rain starting
- A cool fall night
- a cuckoo cries
- A field of cotton
- A man infirm
- A monk sips morning tea
- A snowy morning
- a strange flower
- A weathered skeleton
- A wild sea
Quotations
more quotations »-
''Refinement's origin:
Matsuo Basho (1644-1694), Japanese poet. (untitled haiku), Trans. by Bernard Lionel Einbond, in Cicada I, No. 4 (Winter 1977).
the remote north country's
rice-planting song.''
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''Clouds now and again
Matsuo Basho (1644-1694), Japanese poet. (untitled haiku), Trans. by Bernard Lionel Einbond, in Cicada I, No. 4 (Winter 1977).
give a soul some respite from
moon-gazing—behold.''
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''The summer grasses:
Matsuo Basho (1644-1694), Japanese poet. (untitled haiku), Trans. by Bernard Lionel Einbond, in Cicada I, No. 4 (Winter 1977).
of mighty warlords' visions
all that they have left.''
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''On my travels, stricken—
Matsuo Basho (1644-1694), Japanese poet. (untitled haiku), Trans. by Bernard Lionel Einbond, in Cicada I, No. 4 (Winter 1977). This haiku is known...
my dreams over the dry land
go on roving.''
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I never quite understood haiku until I started reading the works of Basho - now I am studying haiku - and it is quite enlightening - something very different than the poetry that I have often been accustomed to.
How much can be said in so little words.I'm glad I finally discovered who wrote and invented the haiku.Thank you.I wrote some haiku based on THE OLD POND haiku-which is this poet's most famous.