Travel Books

Just starting this page, so it may contain errors.

Kai Ōi, 貝おほひ, The Seashell Game, — an anthology of haiku compiled by Matsuo Bashō. It based on a Japanese game where two sea shells are compared.  Bashō compared two haiku of other poets and added commentary. Bashō included some of his own works. Published 1672.

Poems of Tosei’s Twenty Disciples. Including haiku of the poet. Before becoming Matsuo Basho, he took the penname Tosei.

Nozarashi Kiko, 野ざらし紀行, Journal of Bleached Bones in a Field. 1684-85. Basho and a companion, Chiro set off on the Tokaido coastal road to visit his boyhood home and pay respects to his mother who had died in 1683. From Ueno, they continued on Kyoto, and then inland along the Nakasendo Way back to Edo.

Kasshi ginkō or Kinoene ginkō, 甲子 吟行 /, Journey of 1684-85, an earlier title for the journal kept on a visit to his home in Ueno to visit his mother’s grave. Published 1701. This was later titled Nozarahi Kiko.

Oi no Kobumi, 笈の小文 , Knapsack Journals — Fall of 1687 to Summer of 1688. Encompassing visits to Iga, Nagoya, the Atami peninsula and Iragosaki, Mie and the Ise shrine, Yoshino, Nara to Otsu. Published 1709.

Oku no Hosomichi, 奥の細道, (originally おくのほそ道), The Narrow Road to the Deep North, Spring to fall of 1689. Basho’s best known work. A journey north of Edo, accompanied, for the most part by a companion, Kawai Sora. Published posthumously, 1702.

Sarumino (猿蓑 Monkey’s Raincoat) an anthology published in 1691 by Bashō’s students containing Bashō haiku and others. Collected by Nozawa Bonchō and Mukai Kyorai under Matsuo Bashō’s supervision.