This small work is simple and elegant. It contains vigorous, robust prose, the power and vitality of masculinity, and a delicate, refined style that embodies feminine elegance and grace. As I read Oku no Hosomichi (The Narrow Road to the Deep North), I sometimes stand up suddenly and applaud, while at other times I humbly bow my head, deeply moved. At times, I impatiently wish to don my straw raincoat and embark on a similar journey, and at other times I find contentment in sitting still, imagining the enchanting landscapes of the route passing before my eyes. Such impressions and feelings of beauty have been captured in this book, comparable to the precious stones said to be made from the tears shed by mermaids (Kojin). What a journey, and what a talent the man who experienced it possessed! It is a pity that this great man is now growing weak and white mist is gathering on his brows. – SORYU, Early Summer Genroku 7 (April 1694)

THE NARROW ROAD TO THE DEEP NORTH (Oku no Hosomichi), the last and most masterful work of the greatest Japanese poet Matsuo Basho (1644-1694), is considered one of the masterpieces of classical Japanese literature. It is a travel diary written in the spirit of haikai, in which prose and poetry are harmoniously interwoven into a single poetic whole, renewing the traditional travel literature. Its theme is the great five-month journey that Basho undertook, the last in a series of travels through the Japanese hinterland during the last ten years of his life.

Basho, a respected master of haikai, departed in the spring of 1689 at a mature age and in weakened health from the capital Edo (Tokyo) along with his student Sora for the most distant and arduous journey to the almost unexplored provinces of northern Japan and the western coast of the Japanese Sea. This journey, poetic and deeply spiritual, encompasses a search for the past and a connection to it through visits to places celebrated by old masters and poets.

However, the traveling poet of Oku no Hosomichi is not simply seeking the traces of the art of the old; he seeks what the old also sought, the "truth of poetic art", as well as the formation of a new poetics of haikai, that is both orthodox and unorthodox, old and new, stable and constantly changing, grounded in classical values while engaging with the simple and everyday. This journey will renew literary memory, map out the landscape, and redefine the very notion of journey and its poetic essence. Oku no Hosomichi shapes a new perception of journey as a primary element of human existence, according to which "life is a journey, the journey is home." Basho completed the work shortly before his death, after numerous revisions and four years of refinement.

His aim was to ensure unity, depth, and substance through density and multiple variations in style, language, and content, creating a specific poetic and travel standard for his students and the future perspective of haikai.

BIOGRAPHICAL DETAILS

MATSUNO KINSaku (BASHO) is one of the most significant renewers of the Japanese poetic tradition. He was born in 1644 in Ueno, province of Iga, the child of a poor samurai family, and at the age of twenty-nine moved to Edo (modern Tokyo), where he established himself as a master of haikai and renga, creating a circle of students and patrons that would later form the Basho School.

At the same time, he studied and practiced Zen Buddhism. At the peak of his fame, in 1680, he withdrew to a hut on the outskirts of Edo, leading an ascetic life, and devoted himself to haikai, gradually establishing his personal style. A total of seven anthologies of the Basho School were published. The poet infused haikai with aesthetic subtlety, elegance, spiritual depth, and sensitivity, while maintaining humor, a playful spirit, and a connection to the world of everyday life.

In his work, the deep knowledge and continuity of the classical tradition intertwine with an unconventional disposition and the quest for a constantly new perspective. He highlighted the poetic autonomy of the original seventeen-syllable verse of renga compositions (now known as haiku) and was the first great author of short texts that combine poetry and prose (haibun). Without a home and material dependencies, he traveled the most remote provinces of Japan in the last ten years of his life in a spiritual and poetic quest, while simultaneously spreading the aesthetic principles of the Basho School. The fruit of his many years of wandering is five travel diaries of poetic prose, the most masterful of which is Oku no Hosomichi. Basho died in Osaka in 1694 while traveling, in weakened health, to transmit his new poetic ideal for haikai to his students.