Basho's thoughts on...

• Woman Central
• Introduction to this site
• The Human Story:
• Praise for Women
• Love and Sex in Basho
• Children and Teens
• Humanity and Friendship
• On Translating Basho
• Basho Himself
• Poetry and Music
• The Physical Body
• Food, Drink, and Fire
• Animals in Basho
• Space and Time
• Letters Year by Year
• Bilingual Basho 日本語も
• 芭蕉について日本語の論文
• Basho Tsukeku 芭蕉付句
• BAMHAY (Basho Amazes Me! How About You?)
• New Articles


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.



Basho Spoken Word


Only this, apply your heart
to what children do


"The attachment to Oldness
is the very worst disease
a poet can have."


“The skillful have a disease;
let a three-foot child
get the poem"


"Be sick and tired
of yesterday’s self."


"This is the path of a fresh
lively taste with aliveness
in both heart and words."
.

"In poetry is a realm
which cannot be taught.
You must pass through it
yourself. Some poets have made
no effort to pass through, merely
counting things and trying
to remember them.
There was no passing
through the things."


"In verses of other poets,
there is too much making
and the heart’s
immediacy is lost.
What is made from
the heart is good;
the product of words
shall not be preferred."


"We can live without poetry,
yet without harmonizing
with the world’s feeling
and passing not through
human feeling, a person
cannot be fulfilled. Also,
without good friends,
this would be difficult."


"Poetry benefits
from the realization
of ordinary words."


"Many of my followers
write haiku equal to mine,
however in renku is the
bone marrow of this old man."


"Your following stanza
should suit the previous one as an expression
of the same heart's connection."


"Link verses the way
children play."


"Make renku
ride the Energy.
Get the timing wrong,
you ruin the rhythm."


"The physical form
first of all must be graceful
then a musical quality
makes a superior verse."

"As the years passed
by to half a century.
asleep I hovered
among morning clouds
and evening dusk,
awake I was astonished
at the voices of mountain
streams and wild birds."


“These flies sure enjoy
having an unexpected
sick person.”



Haiku of Humanity


Drunk on sake
woman wearing haori
puts in a sword


Night in spring
one hidden in mystery
temple corner


Wrapping rice cake
with one hands she tucks
hair behind ear


On Life's journey
plowing a small field
going and returning


Child of poverty
hulling rice, pauses to
look at the moon


Tone so clear
the Big Dipper resounds
her mallet


Huddling
under the futon, cold
horrible night


Jar cracks
with the ice at night
awakening



Basho Renku
Masterpieces

With her needle
in autumn she manages
to make ends meet
Daughter playing koto
reaches age seven


After the years
of grieving. . . finally
past eighteen
Day and night dreams of
Father in that battle


Now to this brothel
my body has been sold
Can I trust you
with a letter I wrote,
mirror polisher?


Only my face
by rice-seedling mud
is not soiled
Breastfeeding on my lap
what dreams do you see?



Single renku stanzas


Giving birth to
love in the world, she
adorns herself



Autumn wind
saying not a word
child in tears


Among women
one allowed to lead
them in chorus


Easing in
her slender forearm
for his pillow


Two death poems:


On a journey taken ill
dreams on withered fields
wander about

Clear cascade -
into the ripples fall
green pine needles




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 ' ' :  287 articles found

Keyword:



201 - 250 of 287 : 1 2 3 4 5 6

Verses Only: Tsukeku 2 "It would be good for you to see from practice that your following stanza suits the previous one as an expression of the same heart’s connection."   Basho told Doho, with remarkab ...
▶ Basho Tsukeku 芭蕉付句   K-12

Verses Only: Tsukeku Section 3 "Make renku ride the Energy; chime in incorrectly, you ruin the rhythm."   With each following stanza Basho illustrates how to ride the energy of the previous stanza without ruinin ...
▶ Basho Tsukeku 芭蕉付句   K-13

Verses Only: Tsukeku Section 4 "A stanza elaborately constructed is useless."  一句細工に仕立て候事、不用そうろう事  Ikku saiku ni shitate sōrō koto, fuyō ni sōrō koto   To Basho, an “elabor ...
▶ Basho Tsukeku 芭蕉付句   K-14

Verses Only: Tsukeku Section 5 Basho said "In tsukeku, have a three-foot child get the link."A three-foot tall child would be age 5 or 6.  Children have the clarity of mind to get the point of tsukeku       ...
▶ Basho Tsukeku 芭蕉付句   K-15

Verses Only: Tsukeku Section 6 Without a sense for ordinary words as precious, you will get mixed up in an old style.  俗語の遣やう風流なくて、又古風にまぎれ候事               Mountains are burned&n ...
▶ Basho Tsukeku 芭蕉付句   K-16

Verses Only: Tsukeku Section 7 The following stanza fits in with the previous one, and along with that, it stands out to the eyes,making the verse lively. While scholars say Basho’s poetry was “dominated by subdued, wi ...
▶ Basho Tsukeku 芭蕉付句   K-17

Verses Only: Tsukeku Section 8  Tsukeku benefits from the realization of ordinary words.     First of all, the physical form must be gracefulThen a musical quality makes a superior verse       ------- ...
▶ Basho Tsukeku 芭蕉付句   K-18

Verses Only: Tsukeku Section 9 No stars could be seen on that fateful night Empty stomachs                                        & ...
▶ Basho Tsukeku 芭蕉付句   K-19

Verses only : Tsukeku section 10 Renku of summer 1694 to early winter death;  Basho’s final renku, 8 undated pairs he composed by himself, 4 authorship-doubtful renku, and 2 pairs I found in another book.   Fathe ...
▶ Basho Tsukeku 芭蕉付句   K-20

Woman Central -- Introduction "A woman is the full circle.  Within her is the power to create,  nurture, and transform.”   Diane Mariechild   Woman Central:Basho Honors Women and Girls   ...
▶ Woman Central   L-00

Power of Women "I do not wish women to have power over men; but over themselves."   Mary Wollstonecraft,  A Vindication of the Rights of Women (1795)         &n ...
▶ Woman Central   L-01

Mother as Icon Women created new life out of their bodies and sustained it by nursing and maternal care, connected to other women, female kin or neighbors, sustained by female prayer and ritual.  &n ...
▶ Woman Central   L-02

Woman's Love: "The way of aloha (love) is really simple You give and you give and you give from here (the heart), until you have nothing else to give."   Rell Sunn,  Hawaiian woman surfing ...
▶ Woman Central   L-03

Basho's Goddesses “The symbol of Goddess gives us permission. She teaches us to embrace the holiness of every natural, ordinary, sensual dying moment"--   Sue Monk Kidd -- and  Basho woul ...
▶ Woman Central   L-04

Music, Song, and Dance : "I know I'm stronger in the songs than I really am. Sometimes I need to hear it myself.  We all need to hear those empowering songs to remind us."  Beyonce. Basho reminds us of this ...
▶ Woman Central   L-05

Pregnancy to Birth There is such a special sweetness in being able to participate in Creation                                   & ...
▶ Woman Central   L-06

Breastfeeding with Basho "That divine nourishment - the source from which we all draw, like a mother's breast, ever full and ever flowing."  Sarah Buckley, Physican and natural birth advocate    Basho wro ...
▶ Woman Central   L-07

Marriage For Women (among the Minangkabu of Indonesia)  Since husbands go to live with their wives, it is men who experience the seperation and loss that women face at marriage in so amny other societies.  Sta ...
▶ Woman Central   L-08

Long Black Hair "I love my hair because it’s a reflection of my soul  -  Tracee Ellis Ross    Fascination with women’s hair enriches Japanese literature from ancient until mo ...
▶ Woman Central   L-09

Her Face "Life began with waking up and loving my mother's face." - Mary Ann Evans ("George Eliot")   That my face / resembles my mother's / fascinates  - Basho    Her Face &nb ...
▶ Woman Central   L-10

Attraction "I feel that any woman who is in control, who is in touch with her femininity         and sensuality is a woman that is empowered."  Shakira  The notion that B ...
▶ Woman Central   L-11

Miss Cellany  Feminism isn't about making woman stronger.  Women are already strong.  It's about changing the way the world perceives that strength.           &nbs ...
▶ Woman Central   L-13

A Year of Women “Spring passes and one remembers innocence. Summer passes and one remembers exuberance. Autumn passes, one remembers reverence. Winter passes, one remembers perseverance.”  Yoko ...
▶ Woman Central   L-14

Erotic Flowers Now through a field of riotous maiden flowers  I go untouched by any drop of dew    Suppose you too have a nap among the flowers then we may see how you resist their hues.     ...
▶ Woman Central   L-15

Women in Buddhism “I feel that chanting for thirty-five years has opened a door inside me, and that even if I never chanted again,that door would still be there. I feel at peace with myself.” ...
▶ Woman Central   L-16

Oppression of Women “Criticism of women’s intelligence, autonomy, and moral worthwas essential to the total subordination of women that society demanded.”   Historian Tokuza Akiko xx ...
▶ Woman Central   L-17

Death and Near Death "If I think more about death than some other people, it is probably because I love life more than they do." Angelina Jolie.  Basho also loved life and explored death; here are 20 haiku and renku. ...
▶ Woman Central   L-18

Brothel Slavery Courtesans were ranked and graded from the top class who excelled in their appearance and artistic accomplishments, to women sold cheaply for ten minutes at a time, called "slice-of-time" whores. &nbs ...
▶ Woman Central   L-19

Unfolding Women For me, child, life has always been an endless unfolding:night unfolding into day, girls unfolding into women,women unfolding babies from themselves.Why, life itself unfolds to death, a ...
▶ Woman Central   L-20

Women in Basho Prose So far in Women in Basho we have explored 184 renku and 42 haiku of Basho’s poetic attention to women. In this article we continue exploring images of women flow through his essays and ...
▶ Woman Central   L-21

Women in Basho Letters From a letter to his brother, between 1685 and 1688   … one, I am most grateful to older sister’s kindness,and two, cannot forget our mother’s heart of“Great Compassion f ...
▶ Woman Central   L-22

20 Visions of Women "A woman is the full circle.  Within her is the power to create, nurture, and transform.”  Diane Mariechild   The earliest and most numerous, diverse, and insightful fem ...
▶ Woman Central   L-23

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


201 - 250 of 287 : 1 2 3 4 5 6
Basho's thoughts on...

• Woman Central
• Introduction to this site
• The Human Story:
• Praise for Women
• Love and Sex in Basho
• Children and Teens
• Humanity and Friendship
• On Translating Basho
• Basho Himself
• Poetry and Music
• The Physical Body
• Food, Drink, and Fire
• Animals in Basho
• Space and Time
• Letters Year by Year
• Bilingual Basho 日本語も
• 芭蕉について日本語の論文
• Basho Tsukeku 芭蕉付句
• BAMHAY (Basho Amazes Me! How About You?)
• New Articles


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.



Basho Spoken Word


Only this, apply your heart
to what children do


"The attachment to Oldness
is the very worst disease
a poet can have."


“The skillful have a disease;
let a three-foot child
get the poem"


"Be sick and tired
of yesterday’s self."


"This is the path of a fresh
lively taste with aliveness
in both heart and words."
.

"In poetry is a realm
which cannot be taught.
You must pass through it
yourself. Some poets have made
no effort to pass through, merely
counting things and trying
to remember them.
There was no passing
through the things."


"In verses of other poets,
there is too much making
and the heart’s
immediacy is lost.
What is made from
the heart is good;
the product of words
shall not be preferred."


"We can live without poetry,
yet without harmonizing
with the world’s feeling
and passing not through
human feeling, a person
cannot be fulfilled. Also,
without good friends,
this would be difficult."


"Poetry benefits
from the realization
of ordinary words."


"Many of my followers
write haiku equal to mine,
however in renku is the
bone marrow of this old man."


"Your following stanza
should suit the previous one as an expression
of the same heart's connection."


"Link verses the way
children play."


"Make renku
ride the Energy.
Get the timing wrong,
you ruin the rhythm."


"The physical form
first of all must be graceful
then a musical quality
makes a superior verse."

"As the years passed
by to half a century.
asleep I hovered
among morning clouds
and evening dusk,
awake I was astonished
at the voices of mountain
streams and wild birds."


“These flies sure enjoy
having an unexpected
sick person.”



Haiku of Humanity


Drunk on sake
woman wearing haori
puts in a sword


Night in spring
one hidden in mystery
temple corner


Wrapping rice cake
with one hands she tucks
hair behind ear


On Life's journey
plowing a small field
going and returning


Child of poverty
hulling rice, pauses to
look at the moon


Tone so clear
the Big Dipper resounds
her mallet


Huddling
under the futon, cold
horrible night


Jar cracks
with the ice at night
awakening



Basho Renku
Masterpieces

With her needle
in autumn she manages
to make ends meet
Daughter playing koto
reaches age seven


After the years
of grieving. . . finally
past eighteen
Day and night dreams of
Father in that battle


Now to this brothel
my body has been sold
Can I trust you
with a letter I wrote,
mirror polisher?


Only my face
by rice-seedling mud
is not soiled
Breastfeeding on my lap
what dreams do you see?



Single renku stanzas


Giving birth to
love in the world, she
adorns herself



Autumn wind
saying not a word
child in tears


Among women
one allowed to lead
them in chorus


Easing in
her slender forearm
for his pillow


Two death poems:


On a journey taken ill
dreams on withered fields
wander about

Clear cascade -
into the ripples fall
green pine needles




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