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.
Among the few actual “traces” we have of Basho is his Menu for Moon-Viewing (月見の献立、Tsukimi no Kondate), a list of foods served at a party he gave for his hometown friends and followers on the night of harvest moon.
The list is written on the backside of already-used paper with a design of bamboos and poppy flowers, combing poetic elegance with rustic humility; apparently Basho hand-copied one menu for each guest. Never published, one copy was found in a drawer in an old house near Iga Castle. Early in the 20th century, the current owner, an Iga town official, allowed experts to examine and photograph it. The experts confirmed that the menu is genuine and in Basho’s handwriting.
So here are Basho’s selections to make his guests happy that evening 320 years before I write this sentence.
For the Night of the Harvest Moon
Appetizers: Taro Sake Boiled veggies with oil and vinegar Simmered in broth: Gluten, konnyaku, burdock, woodears, taro Soup: tofu, shimeji mushrooms, ginger In small bowls: salt and bran pickles, walnuts Grated yam with vinegar and soy sauce Clear soup with pine-mushroom Carrot-and-baked-mushroom soup Cold boiled rice Persimmons Tidbits with sake
The Menu is a treasure house for vegans. Each of these is still eaten today in Japan and Asia. Shoko says the selection sounds delicious.
The tuber sato imo, taro – the ingredient in Hawaiian poi – a stable of Japanese village diet since pre-history, appears three times in the Menu.
Nimono are foods simmered in broth to absorb its flavor:
Fu, or wheat gluten, simmered in broth becomes the ‘wheat meat’ popular among vegans not allergic to it. Basho, in Letter 212 to Chigetsu, thanks her for the 20 pieces of fu she sent for this party.
Konnyaku, the root of a subtropical plant known as konjac, or devil’s tongue, ground into flour, boiled, and cooled forms a rubbery jell, often eaten in oden, a hodgepodge of boiled foods popular in cold weather.
Gobo -- the long slender root of the thistle burdock (whose burrs by the way, inspired the invention of Velcro in the 1940s). Delicious sauteed (kinpira gobo).
Kikurage – This mushroom looks like an ear and grows almost exclusively at the base of elder trees—the tree from which Judas Iscariot hanged himself -- so is called “Jew’s ear” (although an non-offensive alternative is “woodear”). Japanese supermarkets sell it dried in thin strips, looking not at all like an ear, and Japanese eat
it unaware of the Judas connection.
Note the four types of mushrooms and three soups. Basho likes soup, the different flavors blending into one. Pickles may be fermented in salt (such as umeboshi) or in rice bran (such as takuan): Grated, the tororo yam becomes a sticky paste. Taro, mushrooms, persimmons, all belong to autumn. Just as a haiku must reflect the season at hand, the Menu for Moon Viewing is a Song of Autumn.
The five nimono form a haiku:
Fu, konnyaku Gluten, konjac gobo, kikurage burdock, woodears sato imo village taro
Shwe from Myanmar says this may be her favorite Basho verse.
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.
