The only substantial
collection in English
of Basho's renku, tanka,
letters and spoken word
along with his haiku, travel
journals, and essays.
The only poet in old-time
literature who paid attention with praise
to ordinary women, children, and teenagers
in hundreds of poems
Hundreds upon hundreds of Basho works
(mostly renku)about women, children,
teenagers, friendship, compassion, love.
These are resources we can use to better
understand ourselves and humanity.
Interesting and heartfelt
(not scholarly and boring)
for anyone concerned with
humanity.
“An astonishing range of
social subject matter and
compassionate intuition”
"The primordial power
of the feminine emanating
from Basho's poetry"
Hopeful, life-affirming
messages from one of
the greatest minds ever.
Through his letters,
we travel through his mind
and discover Basho's
gentleness and humanity.
I plead for your help in
finding a person or group
to take over my 3000 pages of Basho material,
to edit and improve the material, to receive 100%
of royalties, to spread Basho’s wisdom worldwide
and preserve for future generations.
Quotations from Basho Prose
The days and months are
guests passing through eternity.
The years that go by
also are travelers.
The mountains in silence
nurture the spirit;
the water with movement
calms the emotions.
All the more joyful,
all the more caring
Seek not the traces
of the ancients;
seek rather the
places they sought.
Basho's hilarious cartoon in English, Japanese, and Romaji
Legend:
Words of Basho in bold
Words of other poets not bold
A cartoon by Basho?! He drew this nonsense in 1688 on the road with his buddy Tokoku going by the alias Mangiku, and sent it with a letter to Ensui. Let's have fun with Basho!
Tokoku officially in exile, but able to travel because he hid his identity under an alias Mangiku. Kon explains that when Tokoku (sorry, “Mangiku”) was in Iga, he stayed in Ensui’s house, so maybe with the help of this diagram, Ensui can recall the tones of his snore. It truly is a “diagram”– a sketch, drawing, or plan which explains a thing by outlining its parts and workings -- however the thing diagrammed is a snore, More Basho nonsense.
The original of DIAGRAM OF A SNORE is owned by the Basho Museum in Iga who prints and sells a postcard with the cartoon in its original form, however the Japanese on the card is illegible to most Japanese. I have digitally replaced this original Japanese with the same words in three versions: English, modern printed Japanese, and Romanized Japanese:
Ten bu makes a sun (inch), and ten sun make a shaku (foot), so the snore bulges out to 47 inches, and all that sound comes from a hole just 1.2 inches in diameter. (I love the precision).
Then, on the right side, the snore rattles along like a kuruma nagamochi, a huge wooden chest on wheels kept near the door, in case of fire used to get valuables away from the house. In 17th century Japan, however, wheel technology is not so advanced (no rubber, no shockabsorbers, no casters, just wooden wheels on a wooden axle) so the heavily laden chest shakes about a lot as it rolls – which is how the snore ends.
It is difficult for me to study this “diagram” without laughing uncontrollably.
I plead for your help in finding a person or group to take over my 3000 pages of Basho material, to edit and improve the presentation, to receive all royalties from sales, to spread Basho’s wisdom worldwide and preserve for future generations.
The only substantial
collection in English
of Basho's renku, tanka,
letters and spoken word
along with his haiku, travel
journals, and essays.
The only poet in old-time
literature who paid attention with praise
to ordinary women, children, and teenagers
in hundreds of poems
Hundreds upon hundreds of Basho works
(mostly renku)about women, children,
teenagers, friendship, compassion, love.
These are resources we can use to better
understand ourselves and humanity.
Interesting and heartfelt
(not scholarly and boring)
for anyone concerned with
humanity.
“An astonishing range of
social subject matter and
compassionate intuition”
"The primordial power
of the feminine emanating
from Basho's poetry"
Hopeful, life-affirming
messages from one of
the greatest minds ever.
Through his letters,
we travel through his mind
and discover Basho's
gentleness and humanity.
I plead for your help in
finding a person or group
to take over my 3000 pages of Basho material,
to edit and improve the material, to receive 100%
of royalties, to spread Basho’s wisdom worldwide
and preserve for future generations.
Quotations from Basho Prose
The days and months are
guests passing through eternity.
The years that go by
also are travelers.
The mountains in silence
nurture the spirit;
the water with movement
calms the emotions.
All the more joyful,
all the more caring
Seek not the traces
of the ancients;
seek rather the
places they sought.
