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.
(Prototype of an article on Solidarity between Women in the works of Basho)
Uko, a woman married to a doctor, and Chigetsu, widow of a samarai official, were Basho followers living in separate cities; there is no evidence that they ever met, however they each probably saw poems published by the other. In general, in this time, a woman would have friends in her neighborhood, but rarely go outside. Women simply did leave their neighborhood, and with no telephones or email, would have no communication with another woman in another city.
Basho was in Zeze where Chigetsu lives; she must have told him she got a letter from Uko. It is possible that he gave Chigetsu’s address to Uko; otherwise how would she know it?
Basho wrote a letter in response to Uko in 1691:
For the letter you sent to Chigetsu, you have made me grateful. Gentle your heart’s intention, returning again and again. Chigetsu also knows that feeling.
Basho is thankful to Uko for putting herself out there – “your heart’s intention” – to Chigetsu. He wants the two of them to share with each other. He encourages Uko to be gentle “again and again,” to shares that gentle strength with Chigetsu. He seems to be building bridges between these two women followers.
Alana Jayne Piper, in her article Woman’s Worst Enemy, points to in Western society
“an imagein the popular imagination of female relationships as sites of danger and latent animosity,
andmoreover suggests that this reflected an underlying dynamic among women as a whole.”
Of all female relationships, the one containing the most animosity may be between mother-in-law and the
wife of her son. Japan was patrilineal: the young bride, or yome, leaves her native home to join her
husband’s family where her mother-in-law reigns supreme. Western books on Japan emphasize the
mother-in-law’s cruel oppression of the yome who lived in misery until she could pass the misery
onto a younger yome -- as if nowhere in Japan did in-laws get along with each other. In one Basho
letter to Chigetsu, he brings up the issue of how she treats her daughter-in-law.
Your daughter-in-law always, always breaking her bones till it hurts to see her, and so we should feel gratitude. I hope you will be very, very aware of this.
I do not believe Basho is suggesting that Chigetsu is a cruel mother-in-law; if he thought that, Basho,
being Japanese, would never say so outright – however he does feel it worthwhile to offer Chigetsu
thoughts of her daughter-in-law’s humanity. Without Abigail Adams to remind him, Basho “remembers the ladies.”
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.
