Tag - matsuo-basho

 
 

MATSUO BASHO

Many moods come and go, inspiring our art. Though love could be fleeting, it proved the most inspirational of all.
JAPAN / History / The Living Past
Nov 27, 2023
Tales of a Closed Country: Part 2
Even Japan's "sakoku" policies couldn't deter the lovers, artists and poets from their muses. After all, we humans tend to look for beauty where we can.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Jan 29, 2023
Matsuo Basho's complete works reveal the sensuality and innovation of a master poet
Andrew Fitzsimons offers carefully considered translations of the poet’s works, including his famous haiku about a frog in a pond, in “Basho: The Complete Haiku of Matsuo Basho.”
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Oct 29, 2022
Matsuo Basho's lost travelogue finds its way to Kyoto
A new joint exhibition at two museums complement the poet's travel manuscript, which went missing for half a century, with paintings by Yosa Buson and Ito Jakuchu.
Japan Times
JAPAN / History / THE LIVING PAST
Jul 18, 2020
A thousand years of walking through Japan
The act of walking was one that Saigyo, Basho and Matsuo turned into poetry.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Dec 21, 2019
'The Pine Islands': No ordinary death is enough for two misfit souls
Marion Poschmann's 'The Pine Islands' follows two haunted travelers on their journey across Japan, guided by the poems of Matsuo Basho.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Nov 30, 2019
'Travels with a Writing Brush': 1,000 years of travel writing, united by a poetic thread
From 'The Tale of Genji' to Matsuo Basho, Meredith McKinney travels across Japan through 1,000 years of Japanese poetry.
JAPAN / History / THE LIVING PAST
Nov 16, 2019
Gazing in wonder at the many faces of the moon
Why do the sun and the moon see so little of each other?
Japan Times
JAPAN / History / THE LIVING PAST
Oct 19, 2019
Be a frog and jump into Basho's pond
We must know, 'that a haiku does not express ideas but that it puts forward images reflecting intuitions.' — Daisetsu T. Suzuki
Japan Times
JAPAN / History / THE LIVING PAST
Aug 19, 2017
Wabi lies at the heart of Japanese history
You could spend your entire life in modern Japan without ever hearing the term wabi, though no overview of Japanese history or art is complete without it. It's a beautiful word, hard to define like most beautiful words. Poverty is the heart of it, which sounds dispiriting, but there's the Zen phrase "To fill a monk's tattered robe with a cool refreshing breeze," quoted by Zen master Daisetz T. Suzuki (1870-1966) as an invitation to see poverty through Zen eyes.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Sep 24, 2016
The Narrow Road to the Deep North and Other Travel Sketches: Basho's enduring collection of poetry and travel writing
With only a few words, a Haiku master can paint a picture so vivid it's as if the reader is standing beside them — great travel writers have similar abilities. Matsuo Basho was both.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Aug 23, 2014
Cheap train to the north with Basho
On July 19, the Yamagata Shinkansen debuted a luxury ashiya (foot bath) service. A ticket from Tokyo to Yamagata City, in Tohoku Prefecture, costs around ¥11,000, but 15 minutes in the foot bath car is extra. If Matsuo Basho, Japan's most well-known poet, were to retrace his 156-day-long trek through Tohoku in 1689 — described in his masterwork "Oku no Hosomichi" ("The Narrow Road to the Deep North") — he probably wouldn't spring for the shinkansen, much less the foot bath. He'd likely opt for the comparatively spartan Seishun 18 (seishun jūhachi kippu, literally, the youthful 18 ticket), which gets you five nonconsecutive days of travel on all local and rapid Japan Railway trains for ¥11,850. This five-day ticket lets you bend "your steps in whatever direction" you wish — to quote Basho in "Utatsu Kiko" ("The Records of a Travel-Worn Satchel").
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
May 31, 2014
Walking on water: the seven bridges over the Seto Inland Sea
Through the clouds of steam rising from the hotel's hot spring, I can make out Jupiter — a tiny pinprick of light beaming over the twinkling black waters of the Seto Inland Sea. It's easy to see why this hotel is called Bella Vista. Tucked into the hills outside the historic town of Onomichi, in Hiroshima Prefecture, it commands sublime views of the Inland Sea's legend-filled labyrinth of misty islands. Meanwhile, in the onsen (hot spring), fresh sea breezes caress your skin as you boil yourself blissfully to a gooey jelly.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Feb 1, 2014
Tsuruga: truly a 'port of humanity'
The man in the black-and-white photograph wore a dark jacket with wide lapels. His hair was cut short and parted to one side. His eyes were directed toward the camera as if he were looking directly at me. I recognized him immediately: Chiune Sugihara, the Japanese vice-consul in Lithuania who helped to save thousands of Jews fleeing the Nazis during World War II.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Nov 23, 2007
Guided through Japan's deep north by the holy spirit of Basho
Tohoku is Japan's "deep north," through which the famous Zen monk and haiku poet Matsuo Basho walked in 1689, writing one of the most famous travelogues in world literature, "Oku no Hosomichi (The Narrow Road to the Deep North)."

Longform

High-end tourism is becoming more about the kinds of experiences that Japan's lesser-known places can provide.
Can Japan lure the jet-set class off the beaten path?