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Matsuo Bashō

by Dylan Rock from W Henrietta, New York in United States

Hollywood leads the public to believe that a hero wears capes or runs into burning buildings, but a hero should be defined by the way they affect others. Yes, Superman would be a hero, but it is also possible to be a spiritual hero. Famous poet Matsuo Bashō is one of these spiritual heroes. He became widely recognized as the greatest master of haiku for his work in the mid- to late-17th century, but the reason his haiku became popular is more important. He wrote haiku that were freeing to the spirit and the mind.

Bashō was born in the Iga province of Japan and “became a servant of the nobleman Tōdō Yoshitada” (School of Life). Yoshitada taught Bashō the haiku style of poetry during their time together. When Yoshitada suddenly died, Bashō eventually moved to the city of Edo, which is where he rose to fame. He wouldn’t stay long though. Great tragedy struck his life when his house burned down and his mother died, putting him in a state of melancholy. He spent the majority of his life after that travelling Japan on foot. When he would stop, he’d come back and live on the outskirts of Edo.

Bashō began to study Zen Buddhism around this time where he brought a new element to his poetry: wabi-sabi. Wabi-sabi is seeing the beauty in things that are “imperfect, impermanent, and incomplete. In art, Wabi-sabi is manifested in modest, humble, unpretentious and earthy artworks” (Zen Enlightenment). To incorporate this, Bashō wrote his poems about deceptively simple and natural scenes “influenced by his firsthand experience of the world around him” (Source 1). This is very apparent in Bashō’s most famous haiku, ‘Old Pond’.

Old Pond…

A frog leaps in

Water’s sound

He was appalled by pretension and elaboration (Eastern Philosophy) because it only made him and others feel less adequate for not having an immediate understanding. Bashō’s purpose in writing such simple poems was to “remind readers that what really matters is to be able to be content with our own company” (School of Life). Those who could read his poetry would understand it the same way as everyone else. There wouldn’t be the same disconnect that authors and writers like Shakespeare created. The pretension only existed to exclude others, which only furthered the problem of self-image. 

The long and deep state of melancholy that stuck with Bashō for much of his life made being content as he traveled the countryside difficult. A lot of those nights were in dangerous and uncomfortable conditions. These conditions were best captured in this haiku:

Fleas and lice biting;

awake all night

a horse pissing close to my ear

Bashō’s haiku were also his way, and sometimes attempt, of freeing himself from his own problems. However bad the fleas were, he knew that it was all temporary. They and the rest of nature reminded him that his problems were so unimportant in the grand scheme of it all. It puts the universe in perspective for anyone struggling. Bashō had has own feelings of incompleteness and desire, but found an avenue to overcome it for himself and for others struggling. He reminds us that constant self-attention is not what brings us to contentment. His belief in being content with oneself is what happiness really is. Bashō’s simple haiku were a message to his readers that no small problem is the end of the world and that the world will continue as it has.

Bashō will be honored by the several haiku I have written about his life and in his style. He was the greatest master of haiku, and there is no other way to embody him and his work than by writing in the very style he was best known for. I started this project as a challenge to prove to my teacher that I could write haiku for a grade, but I began to understand their power of wisdom and calmness. He inspired me to write some haiku that are freeing to the mind and spirit.

Page created on 1/23/2020 2:39:15 PM

Last edited 3/5/2020 9:39:52 PM

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