Basho's thoughts on...
Matsuo Basho 1644~1694
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.
basho4humanity
@gmail.com
Plea for Affiliation
Plea For Affiliation
I pray for your help
in finding someone
- individual, university,
or foundation -
to take over my
3000 pages of material,
to cooperate with me
to edit the material,
to receive all royalties
from sales, to spread
Basho’s wisdom worldwide,
and preserve for
future generations.
basho4humanity
@gmail.com
Article Search
Searched for ' ' : 40 articles found
After Having Measles
In 1691, with no scientific education, Basho recognizes the essence of immunology: measles leaves “traces” (i.e. lymphocytes) which prevent this disease from occurring again in this body.
...
▶ BAMHAY (Basho Amazes Me! How About You?)
M-01
Sake and Breasts
Here is a Basho renku about two very popular elements of culture: rice wine and and woman's breasts. How did Basho 330 years ago put these two elements together to please us?
&nbs ...
▶ BAMHAY (Basho Amazes Me! How About You?)
M-02
Breastfeeding on my lap
In 1692, 100 years before feminism began in Mary Wollstonecraft's Vindication for the Rights of Women, Basho in his patriarchal society produced this exquisitely feminist poem: ...
▶ BAMHAY (Basho Amazes Me! How About You?)
M-03
One Soft Chubby Tush
Basho actually wrote a fun-filled renku stanza about a baby’s rear end -- probably the only such verse in world literature. BAMHAY! Basho Amazes Me! How About You? . . .
...
▶ BAMHAY (Basho Amazes Me! How About You?)
M-04
Basho on Sexual Passion:
Confucius said : “When young, do not let your future be decided by hot blood”
and here Basho shows us his awareness of consequens of young people followiing their desires.& ...
▶ BAMHAY (Basho Amazes Me! How About You?)
M-05
Engulfed by Passion
You may think Basho only writes about impersonal nature scenes or lonely desolation, but here is a stanza-pair overflowing with male violence and passion driven by betrayel and testesterone.
En ...
▶ BAMHAY (Basho Amazes Me! How About You?)
M-06
Two Basho Renku on Make-Up and Dress:
It amazes me that Basho – unlike any male author in world literature – paid so much attention to the feminine pursuits of make-up and clothing. How about you?
Winter solstice on porchmy d ...
▶ BAMHAY (Basho Amazes Me! How About You?)
M-07
Basho's Mona Lisa:
1) Simple observation: no abstractions or judgements 2) Focus on a women. 3) Specific body parts
4) Lively active verbs specify physical actions:
& ...
▶ BAMHAY (Basho Amazes Me! How About You?)
M-08
Mother and Daughter IV
In a single renku link, Basho brings together the power in a woman's hair, her power workng for her family, and her succession of light and power to her daughters..........
By mo ...
▶ BAMHAY (Basho Amazes Me! How About You?)
M-09
She Adorns Herself
Basho, more than any poet in World Literature, expresses the power of the female to give life as in this renku of 1683 where his second stanza fulfills the first stanza by another poet:
S ...
▶ BAMHAY (Basho Amazes Me! How About You?)
M-10
Follow the Drinking Gourd
Tone so clear the Big Dipper resounds her mallet
Before cotton entered Japan in the 16th century, and then where cotton was unavailable, villagers (i.e. women) made their family’s clothin ...
▶ BAMHAY (Basho Amazes Me! How About You?)
M-11
To a Newborn Baby Girl:
In the spring of 1690, Basho was asked to name a newborn girl; he called her “Kasane” which means "to pile up in layers" or "to occur again and again, in succession." and wrote this t ...
▶ BAMHAY (Basho Amazes Me! How About You?)
M-12
Mother and Daughter I:
Basho weaves together the themes of poverty, being a single mother, music, and hope in this masterpiece of renku anthropology. Another poet begins and Basho follows:
With her needle
in au ...
▶ BAMHAY (Basho Amazes Me! How About You?)
M-13
Mother and Daughter II
A scholar who knows not Basho's renku, claims that Basho was “at times, cold-hearted, inhuman” –
however the renku unknown to him contain much itawaru, caring for others.&r ...
▶ BAMHAY (Basho Amazes Me! How About You?)
M-14
The Eternal Mother
The link – thoughts taking us – from first stanza to Basho’s reveals the vastness of his genius. Only Basho creates a link such as this, so personal and bodily yet so full of heart:& ...
▶ BAMHAY (Basho Amazes Me! How About You?)
M-15
Can I Trust You?
Most “play-women” in this era were young village girls indentured to a brothel to save the family from financial ruin. Brokers went to areas struck by famine, searching for “bargains ...
▶ BAMHAY (Basho Amazes Me! How About You?)
M-16
Death of Father
Written in 1687, can this stanza-pair reach the heart of one – girl or boy – whose parent died in war, terrorism, or police brutality. Another poet begins and Basho follows:
A ...
▶ BAMHAY (Basho Amazes Me! How About You?)
M-17
Empowered by Song
One of Basho's most empowering renku links is:
Her semblance of power pebbles thrown in vain
Among women one allowed to lead them in chorus
His boat has le ...
▶ BAMHAY (Basho Amazes Me! How About You?)
M-18
Tigress at Daybreak
The "tigress" in this Basho renku may be animal or human. Daybreak is the Sun-Goddess giving birth to the day and maybe to life in tigress’ belly. Basho pays attention to the female. . .
W ...
▶ BAMHAY (Basho Amazes Me! How About You?)
M-19
Love poem by Basho
The boss pretendsnot to see their loveyet he knows
Figures half-hiddenbehind the umbrella
Walking together in town, the lovers are surprised to see her (or their) boss coming the other way ...
▶ BAMHAY (Basho Amazes Me! How About You?)
M-20
Haiku and a Child's Face
Basho wrote these two stanzas together in 1688:
Before my eyesthe scene just as ismakes a haiku -- As a child turns sevenface becomes clear
Me no mae no / keshiki sono mama /shi ni tsukuru
Yat ...
▶ BAMHAY (Basho Amazes Me! How About You?)
M-21
Fear and Sexual Assault:
In 1688 another poet and Basho wrote this renku stanza-pair:
Not getting upI recognize his smelland am afraid
Wiping the sweat fromsidelocks in disarray
As he enters the room, she recognizes h ...
▶ BAMHAY (Basho Amazes Me! How About You?)
M-22
Mother and Daughter III
In 1690 Kyokusui begins and Basho follows:
From slender threadslove gets so intense!
Though my thoughtsare of love, “eat something!”she commands me
Love starts out simple but someh ...
▶ BAMHAY (Basho Amazes Me! How About You?)
M-23
Boy's Mischief
Knocking on back doorand running away home
She cries and crieswith never a conclusionto her hiccups
妻戸たたきて / 逃げて 帰りぬ泣く泣くて /しゃくりのとまる / 果て も なし
Tsumado tatakite / nigete ...
▶ BAMHAY (Basho Amazes Me! How About You?)
M-24
Young and Helpless
Young and helplesswith bow and arrows,the boy kneels
White hair seen throughgaps in bamboo blind
The newest student at an archery dojo kneels on the floor, feeling small and weak. To this we ad ...
▶ BAMHAY (Basho Amazes Me! How About You?)
M-25
Woman in the Center
Absurdly long sword /hangs from his waistEvening dusk /startled by a frog /in thick grass
To pick buds of coltsfoot / lantern shaken goes out
Kyorai begins this trio with a man and his phallic ...
▶ BAMHAY (Basho Amazes Me! How About You?)
M-26
Energy From Basho
The 17th century Japanese poet Basho was a master of renku, poetry composed by a group of poets, each writing a stanza linked to the stanza by another; he told his follower D ...
▶ BAMHAY (Basho Amazes Me! How About You?)
M-27
The Night Before a Battle
In the cold windat sunset, long drawn-outcries of hawks
Foretell the heads to fallin tomorrow’s battle
Kaze samuki yuuhi ni /kari no koe hikiteIkusa ni asu no / kubi o uranau
Koeki ...
▶ BAMHAY (Basho Amazes Me! How About You?)
M-28
Cat Sex
She resents the snarlingcries of cats fighting
High on top,low on bottom, howlove is done
Cats and humans do it the same way: as a struggle for dominance and being on top. Not only in sex
but ...
▶ BAMHAY (Basho Amazes Me! How About You?)
M-29
Love in One Basho Renku
A single renku stanza, without the baggage of the previous stanza or the very different baggage of the following stanza, can apply to a wide range of circumstances: For instance, this stanza ...
▶ BAMHAY (Basho Amazes Me! How About You?)
M-30
Are You Stoned?
Evening dusk,
going back for the pipehe left behind
Rice maidens for fun
throw mud at eachother
A traveler took a break to sit and smoke his pipe; the verse does not say what he was smokin ...
▶ BAMHAY (Basho Amazes Me! How About You?)
M-31
Beating Down Women and Girls
Feminist Tokuza Akiko says that in Basho’s time and society,
“criticism of women’s intelligence, autonomy, and moral worth
(was) essential to the total subordination of women that s ...
▶ BAMHAY (Basho Amazes Me! How About You?)
M-32
Fickle one!
Boncho begins, Basho takes the middle, and Kyorai concludes:
His carriage pulls inthe neighbor’s gateway
“Fickle one,under hedge of spikesyou must crawl!”
Now, before he ...
▶ BAMHAY (Basho Amazes Me! How About You?)
M-33
Basho's Most Erotic Haiku
On his journey to the Deep North, he is in Obanazawa, a town famous for growing safflowers and producing the orange-red dye used in make-up and to color a woman's under-kimono. A red und ...
▶ BAMHAY (Basho Amazes Me! How About You?)
M-34
Sword Drawn in a Flash
Dew for his opponentsword drawn in a flash
Town notablestogether getting drunkunder blossoms
Basho uses the word iai for a practitioner of the martial art we now call iaido, the art of bei ...
▶ BAMHAY (Basho Amazes Me! How About You?)
M-35
A Mole on her Face
Youngest daughter hatesthe mole on her face
Robe for dancingaimlessly she folds itinside the box
The mole does not interfere with her intelligence or motor ability, but everyone who meets ...
▶ BAMHAY (Basho Amazes Me! How About You?)
M-36
Basho and Taima
Basho begins and Kikaku follows:
Miracles fromofferings to the Goddessshining on blossoms
Bird of good fortunebuilds her nest with hemp
Basho sees the Sun Goddess Amaterasu in sunlight s ...
▶ BAMHAY (Basho Amazes Me! How About You?)
M-37
Misogyny and Menstruation in Basho Renku
Here in 1679 Basho begins and another poet follows:
“Weak as green willow”
the wife is despised -
‘Path of blood’her day by day miseryin the spring rain
Willow branches ...
▶ BAMHAY (Basho Amazes Me! How About You?)
M-38
Penis Recalls Umbilicus
Basho totally astounds me with this renku stanza, and another poet does a good job following:
Like his navel cordhis visits to the Yoshiwarashall be cut off
He resents the thunderof the midnigh ...
▶ BAMHAY (Basho Amazes Me! How About You?)
M-39
Tuberculosis
Millions throughout time have suffered and died from tuberculosis whose classic symptoms are a chronic cough with blood-containing sputum, fever, night sweats, and weight loss. The term "con ...
▶ BAMHAY (Basho Amazes Me! How About You?)
M-40
Basho's thoughts on...
Matsuo Basho 1644~1694
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.
basho4humanity
@gmail.com
Plea for Affiliation
Plea For Affiliation
I pray for your help
in finding someone
- individual, university,
or foundation -
to take over my
3000 pages of material,
to cooperate with me
to edit the material,
to receive all royalties
from sales, to spread
Basho’s wisdom worldwide,
and preserve for
future generations.
basho4humanity
@gmail.com
