Bashō's own references to this time are vague he recalled that "at one time I coveted an official post with a tenure of land", and that "there was a time when I was fascinated with the ways of homosexual love": there is no indication whether he was referring to real obsessions or fictional ones. Biographers have proposed various reasons and destinations, including the possibility of an affair between Bashō and a Shinto miko named Jutei ( 寿貞), which is unlikely to be true. No records of this time remain, but it is believed that Bashō gave up any possibility of samurai status and left home. In 1666, Yoshitada's sudden death brought Bashō's peaceful life as a servant to an end. In 1665, Bashō and Yoshitada together with some acquaintances composed a hyakuin, or one-hundred-verse renku. In 1726, two of Bashō's hokku were printed in a compilation. Both Bashō and Yoshitada gave themselves haigō ( 俳号), or haikai pen names Bashō's was Sōbō ( 宗房), which was simply the on'yomi (Sino-Japanese reading) of his adult name, "Munefusa ( 宗房)." In 1662, the first extant poem by Bashō was published. The hokku would be followed by a related 7-7 mora verse by another poet. A sequence was opened with a verse in 5-7-5 mora format this verse was named a hokku, and would centuries later be renamed haiku when presented as a stand-alone work. He shared Yoshitada's love for haikai no renga, a form of collaborative poetry composition. A later hypothesis is that he was chosen to serve as page ( koshō ) to Yoshitada, with alternative documentary evidence suggesting he started serving at a younger age. It is claimed he served as cook or a kitchen worker in some near-contemporaneous accounts, but there is no conclusive proof. In his late teens, Bashō became a servant to Tōdō Yoshitada ( 藤堂 良忠) most likely in some humble capacity, and probably not promoted to full samurai class. The Matsuo were a major ninja family, and Bashō was trained in ninjutsu. 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. Matsuo Bashō was born in 1644, near Ueno, in Iga Province. His poems were influenced by his firsthand experience of the world around him, often encapsulating the feeling of a scene in a few simple elements.īiography Early life Bashō's supposed birthplace in Iga Province. He made a living as a teacher but then renounced the social, urban life of the literary circles and was inclined to wander throughout the country, heading west, east, and far into the northern wilderness to gain inspiration for his writing. Where I show who I really am is in linking haikai verses." īashō was introduced to poetry at a young age, and after integrating himself into the intellectual scene of Edo (modern Tokyo) he quickly became well known throughout Japan. He is quoted as saying, "Many of my followers can write hokku as well as I can. Although Bashō is famous in the West for his hokku, he himself believed his best work lay in leading and participating in renku. Matsuo Bashō's poetry is internationally renowned, and, in Japan, many of his poems are reproduced on monuments and traditional sites. He is also well known for his travel essays beginning with Records of a Weather-Exposed Skeleton (1684), written after his journey west to Kyoto and Nara. During his lifetime, Bashō 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 (then called hokku). Matsuo Bashō ( 松尾 芭蕉, 1644 – Novemborn Matsuo Kinsaku, then Matsuo Chūemon Munefusa ) was the most famous poet of the Edo period in Japan.
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