The Narrow Road to the Deep North
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''Oku no Hosomichi'' (, originally ), translated as ''The Narrow Road to the Deep North'' and ''The Narrow Road to the Interior'', is a major work of '' haibun'' by the
Japanese poet Japanese poetry is poetry typical of Japan, or written, spoken, or chanted in the Japanese language, which includes Old Japanese, Early Middle Japanese, Late Middle Japanese, and Modern Japanese, as well as poetry in Japan which was written in th ...
Matsuo Bashō born then was the most famous poet of the Edo period in Japan. During his lifetime, Bashō was recognized for his works in the collaborative '' haikai no renga'' form; today, after centuries of commentary, he is recognized as the greatest ma ...
, considered one of the major texts of Japanese literature of the Edo period. The first edition was published posthumously in 1702. The text is written in the form of a prose and
verse Verse may refer to: Poetry * Verse, an occasional synonym for poetry * Verse, a metrical structure, a stanza * Blank verse, a type of poetry having regular meter but no rhyme * Free verse, a type of poetry written without the use of strict me ...
travel diary The genre of travel literature encompasses outdoor literature, guide books, nature writing, and travel memoirs. One early travel memoirist in Western literature was Pausanias, a Greek geographer of the 2nd century CE. In the early modern period ...
and was penned as Bashō made an epic and dangerous journey on foot through the
Edo Edo ( ja, , , "bay-entrance" or "estuary"), also romanized as Jedo, Yedo or Yeddo, is the former name of Tokyo. Edo, formerly a ''jōkamachi'' (castle town) centered on Edo Castle located in Musashi Province, became the ''de facto'' capital of ...
Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...
of the late 17th century. While the poetic work became seminal of its own account, the poet's travels in the text have since inspired many people to follow in his footsteps and trace his journey for themselves. In one of its most memorable passages, Bashō suggests that "every day is a journey, and the journey itself home". The text was also influenced by the works of
Du Fu Du Fu (; 712–770) was a Tang dynasty poet and politician. Along with his elder contemporary and friend Li Bai (Li Po), he is frequently called the greatest of the Chinese poets.Ebrey, 103. His greatest ambition was to serve his country as ...
, who was highly revered by Bashō. Of ''Oku no Hosomichi'', Kenji Miyazawa once suggested, "It was as if the very soul of Japan had itself written it."


The text


Opening sentences

Bashō's introductory sentences are the most quoted of ''Oku no Hosomichi'':


Plot

''Oku no Hosomichi'' was written based on a journey taken by Bashō in the late spring of 1689. He and his traveling companion Kawai Sora ( 河合曾良) departed from
Edo Edo ( ja, , , "bay-entrance" or "estuary"), also romanized as Jedo, Yedo or Yeddo, is the former name of Tokyo. Edo, formerly a ''jōkamachi'' (castle town) centered on Edo Castle located in Musashi Province, became the ''de facto'' capital of ...
(modern-day Tokyo) for the northerly interior region known as Oku, propelled mostly by a desire to see the places about which the old poets wrote in an effort to "renew his own art." Specifically, he was emulating Saigyō, whom Bashō praised as the greatest waka poet; Bashō made a point of visiting all the sites mentioned in Saigyō's verse. Travel in those days was very dangerous, but Bashō was committed to a kind of poetic ideal of wandering. He traveled for about 156 days altogether, covering almost , mostly on foot. Of all of Bashō's works, this is the best known. This poetic diary is in the form known as '' haibun'', a combination of prose and haiku. It contains many references to Confucius, Saigyō, Du Fu, ancient Chinese poetry, and even '' The Tale of the Heike''. It manages to strike a delicate balance between all the elements to produce a powerful account. It is primarily a travel account, and Bashō vividly relates the unique poetic essence of each stop in his travels. Stops on his journey include the Tokugawa shrine at Nikkō, the Shirakawa barrier, the islands of
Matsushima is a group of islands in Miyagi Prefecture, Japan. There are some 260 tiny islands (''shima'') covered in pines (''matsu'') – hence the name – and it is considered to be one of the Three Views of Japan. Nearby cultural properties ...
, Hiraizumi, Sakata,
Kisakata was a town located in Yuri District, Akita Prefecture, Japan. In 2003, the town had an estimated population of 12,836 and a density of 103.50 persons per km². The total area was 124.02 km². On October 1, 2005, Kisakata, along with the to ...
, and Etchū. He and Sora parted at
Yamanaka Yamanaka (written: ; lit: "middle of mountain") is a Japanese surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Akira Joe Yamanaka, singer for the Flower Travellin' Band * Akiko Yamanaka (born 1945), Japanese politician of the Liberal Democratic ...
, but at Ōgaki he briefly met up with a few of his other disciples before departing again to the Ise Shrine and closing the account. After his journey, he spent five years working and reworking the poems and prose of ''Oku no Hosomichi'' before publishing it.Bashō 1996b: 13. Based on differences between draft versions of the account,
Sora's diary The was the memorandum of Kawai Sora in 1689 and 1691 when he accompanied Matsuo Bashō, on his noted journeys. By the time it was re-discovered in 1943, the presence of this diary had been doubted. This diary has proven indispensable in the study ...
, and the final version, it is clear that Bashō took a number of artistic liberties in the writing. An example of this is that in the ''Senjūshu'' ("Selection of Tales") attributed to Saigyō, the narrator is passing through Eguchi when he is driven by a storm to seek shelter in the nearby cottage of a prostitute; this leads to an exchange of poems, after which he spends the night there. Bashō similarly includes in ''Oku no Hosomichi'' a tale of him having an exchange with prostitutes staying in the same inn, but Sora mentions nothing.


Philosophy behind the text

Nobuyuki Yuasa notes that Bashō studied Zen meditation under the guidance of the Priest Buccho, though it is uncertain whether Bashō ever attained
enlightenment Enlightenment or enlighten may refer to: Age of Enlightenment * Age of Enlightenment, period in Western intellectual history from the late 17th to late 18th century, centered in France but also encompassing (alphabetically by country or culture): ...
. The Japanese Zen scholar D. T. Suzuki has described Bashō's philosophy in writing poetry as one requiring that both "subject and object were entirely annihilated" in meditative experience. Yuasa likewise writes: "Bashō had been casting away his earthly attachments, one by one, in the years preceding the journey, and now he had nothing else to cast away but his own self which was in him as well as around him. He had to cast this self away, for otherwise he was not able to restore his true identity (what he calls the 'everlasting self which is poetry). Yuasa notes "''The Narrow Road to the Deep North'' is Bashō's study in eternity, and in so far as he has succeeded in this attempt, it is also a monument he has set up against the flow of time."Bashō 1966: 37.


References


Bibliography


English translations

* Bashō, Matsuo. ''The Narrow Road to the Deep North and Other Travel Sketches''. Intro. and trans. Nobuyuki Yuasa. London: Penguin Books (Penguin Classics), 1966. Print. * Bashō, Matsuo. "The Narrow Road Through the Provinces". ''Japanese Poetic Diaries''. Ed. and trans. Earl Miner. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1969. Print. * Bashō, Matsuo. "The Narrow Road to the Interior". ''Classical Japanese Prose: An Anthology''. Ed. and trans. Helen Craig McCullough. Stanford:
Stanford University Press Stanford University Press (SUP) is the publishing house of Stanford University. It is one of the oldest academic presses in the United States and the first university press to be established on the West Coast. It was among the presses officially ...
, 1990. Print. * Bashō, Matsuo. ''Narrow Road to the Interior''. Trans. Sam Hamill. Boston: Shambhala (Shambhala Centaur Editions), 1991. Print. Presentation
** Reedition: Bashō, Matsuo. ''Narrow Road to the Interior and other writings''. Trans. Sam Hamill. 2nd ed. Boston: Shambhala (Shambhala Classics), 2000. Print. Presentation
* Bashō, Matsuo. ''Back Roads to Far Towns: Bashō's'' Oku-no-hosomichi. Trans.
Cid Corman Cid (Sidney) Corman (June 29, 1924 – March 12, 2004) was an American poet, translator and editor, most notably of ''Origin'', who was a key figure in the history of American poetry in the second half of the 20th century. Life Corman was bor ...
and Kamaike Susumu. 2nd ed. (1st ed. Grossman, 1968.) Hopewell: Ecco Press, 1996. Print. ** Reedition: Bashō, Matsuo. ''Back Roads to Far Towns: Bashō's Travel Journal''. Trans. Cid Corman and Kamaike Susumu. Buffalo: White Pine Press, 2004. Print. Preview
on Google Books)

of the book a

* Bashō, Matsuo. ''Bashō's Narrow Road: Spring and Autumn Passages''. Trans. Hiroaki Sato. Berkeley: Stone Bridge Press (The Rock Spring Collection of Japanese Literature), 1996a. Print. * Bashō, Matsuo. ''The Narrow Road to Oku''. Trans. Donald Keene. Tokyo: Kodansha International, 1996b. Print. ** An earlier and slightly different partial translation appeared in the same translator's 1955 ''Anthology of Japanese Literature''. * Bashō, Matsuo. ''A Haiku Journey: Bashō's'' Narrow Road to a Far Province. Trans. Dorothy Britton. 3rd ed. (1st ed. 1974.) Tokyo: Kodansha International, 2002. Print. * Chilcott, Tim
"Bashō: Oku no Hosomichi"


'. August 2004. Web. Consulted on 13 November 2010.


Critical works

* Keene, Donald. ''Seeds in the Heart: Japanese Literature from Earliest Times to the Late Sixteenth Century''. New York: Columbia University Press, 1999. Print. * Keene, Donald. ''Travelers of a Hundred Ages''. New York: Columbia University Press, 1999a. Print. * Norman, Howard. "On the Trail of a Ghost". ''
National Geographic ''National Geographic'' (formerly the ''National Geographic Magazine'', sometimes branded as NAT GEO) is a popular American monthly magazine published by National Geographic Partners. Known for its photojournalism, it is one of the most widely ...
''. February 2008, 136–149. Print. ** Online version: Norman, Howard.
On the Poet's Trail
.
National Geographic
'. February 2008. Web. Consulted on 13 November 2010. * Shirane, Haruo. ''Traces of Dreams: Landscape, Cultural Memory, and the Poetry of Bashō''. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1998. Print. Preview
on Google Books) * Suzuki, Daisetz Teitaro. ''The Awakening of Zen''. London: Shambhala, 1980. Print.


External links



featuring 9 different translations of the opening paragraph *

from the
Ishikawa Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Chūbu region of Honshu island. Ishikawa Prefecture has a population of 1,140,573 (31 October 2019) and has a geographic area of 4,186 km2 (1,616 sq mi). Ishikawa Prefecture borders Toyama Prefecture to ...
website *
Original Japanese text of ''Oku no Hosomichi''
*
Listen to ''Oku no hosomichi'' at librivox.org
* Manuscript scans

from the Waseda University Library {{DEFAULTSORT:Oku No Hosomichi 1702 books Books published posthumously Edo-period works Japanese poetry collections Travel books Articles containing Japanese poems Haiku