Biography

[Draft]

Matsuo Bashō
Early Life

Matsuo Bashō was born in the town of Ueno, Mie Province in 1644. It is said that his father was of the samurai class. By the time Basho was born, the father was a farmer. This likely was the result of the ending of the civil wars and the establishment of the Tokugawa shogunate in 1603. The need for large armies having ended, former soldiers werw given land to reduce the strain on the central government and its budget.

Matsuo Kinsaku (松尾 金作), as he was called at his birth, was not the oldest son. For this reason it is likely that young Matsuo was sent to the ruling castle in Ueno as a page to Tōdō Yoshitada (藤堂 良忠), third son of a ruling general and lord of the castle. At the time, Matsuo was two years younger than Yoshitada.

Yoshitada had an interest in poetry which he shared with the younger Matsuo. Both Bashō and Yoshitada gave themselves haigō (俳号), pen names. Bashō’s was Sōbō (宗房), a Chinese-Japanese interpretation of his name Munefusa (宗房).

In 1662, Bashō’s first known poem was published.

滝川に / 風吹くことも / 秋の風
Takigawa ni / kaze fuku koto mo / aki no kaze

Literally,

滝川に (Takigawa ni) – “At the waterfall”
風吹くことも (Kaze fuku koto mo) – “The wind also blows”
秋の風 (Aki no kaze) – “Autumn wind”

But the meaning is unclear. Does Bashō mean that the waterfall stirs the air creating its own autumn wind. Is the gust that rises from the waterfall like the autumn wind. Autumn wind signals the passing of summer and the approach of winter, in Zen Buddhism, the impermanence of life.

“The wind swirls
below the waterfall as the
— autumn wind.”

More colorfully,

At the waterfall,
wind flows through barren branches,
— an autumn wind.

‘Tis the beauty of haiku that one must imagine one is there… Feeling the gust from the water splashing down on the rocks below, or feeling the autumn wind as one watches the water flow off the cliff and is caught for a moment in the air.

[Note. Modern day historians Makoto Ueda and Haruo Shirane treat this poem as the earliest known example of Bashō’s haiku style.]

In April 1666, Tōdō Yoshitada died. Bashō, now 21, had served out his apprenticeship (or obligatory period of service) moved on to Kyoto where his poems would occasionally appear in anthologies.

This stage of the young poet’s life lasted until 1672. It was then that Matsuo took the wise decision of moving to Edo, the capital of the Tokugawa shogunate, and the place where a rising young artist would likely find fame. His journey to Edo took him along either the Tōkaidō (東海道), that is, “Eastern Coastal Route,” or Nakasendō (中山道), the “Central Mountain Route.” The first route would take him close to home. Both routes became familiar journeys that he would continue to make later in life. But none would compare in fame to Oku no Hosomichi, the Journey into the Northern Interior.

To be continued…