, translated alternately as
The Narrow Road to the Deep North and
The Narrow Road to the Interior, is a major work by the
Japanese poet 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 a master of brief and clear haiku...
considered "one of the major texts of classical Japanese literature."
The text is written in the form of a
travel diaryTravel literature is travel writing of literary value. Travel literature typically records the experiences of an author touring a place for the pleasure of travel. An individual work is sometimes called a travelogue or itinerary. Travel literature may be cross-cultural or transnational in focus, or...
and was penned as Bashō made an epic and dangerous journey on foot through the
EdoThe , or , is a division of Japanese history which was ruled by the shoguns of the Tokugawa family, running from 1603 to 1868. The political entity of this period was the Tokugawa shogunate....
JapanJapan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
of the late 17th century. While the
poeticPoetry is a form of literary art in which language is used for its aesthetic and evocative qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its apparent meaning...
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."
Of
Oku no Hosomichi,
Kenji Miyazawawas a Japanese poet and author of children's literature in the early Shōwa period of Japan. He was also known as a devout Buddhist, vegetarian and social activist.-Early life:...
once suggested, "It was as if the very soul of Japan had itself written it".
Opening sentences
Bashō's introductory sentences are the most quoted of
Oku no Hosomichi:
Japanese originalis a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is a member of the Japonic language family, which has a number of proposed relationships with other languages, none of which has gained wide acceptance among historical linguists .Japanese is an...
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English translation English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
by Donald KeeneDonald Lawrence Keene is a Japanologist, scholar, teacher, writer, translator and interpreter of Japanese literature and culture. Keene was University Professor Emeritus and Shincho Professor Emeritus of Japanese Literature at Columbia University, where he taught for over fifty years...
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- 月日は百代の過客にして、行かふ年も又旅人也。舟の上に生涯をうかべ馬の口とらえて老をむかふる物は、日々旅にして、旅を栖とす。古人も多く旅に死せるあり。予もいづれの年よりか、片雲の風にさそはれて、漂泊の思ひやまず、海浜にさすらへ、去年の秋江上の破屋に蜘の古巣をはらひて、やゝ年も暮、春立る霞の空に、白河の関こえんと、そヾろ神の物につきて心をくるはせ、道祖神のまねきにあひて取もの手につかず、もゝ引の破をつヾり、笠の緒付かえて、三里に灸すゆるより、松島の月先心にかゝりて、住る方は人に譲り、杉風が別墅に移るに、
- 草の戸も住替る代ぞひなの家
- 面八句を庵の柱に懸置。
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The months and days are the travelers of eternity. The years that come and go are also voyagers. Those who float away their lives on ships or who grow old leading horses are forever journeying, and their homes are wherever their travels take them. Many of the men of old died on the road, and I too for years past have been stirred by the sight of a solitary cloud drifting with the wind to ceaseless thoughts of roaming.
Last year I spent wandering along the seacoast. In autumn I returned to my cottage on the river and swept away the cobwebs. Gradually the year drew to its close. When spring came and there was mist in the air, I thought of crossing the Barrier of Shirakawais a city in Fukushima, Japan. It is located in the southern portion of the prefecture.The 2003 estimated population was 48,297 and the density in that year was 410.44 persons per km². The total area was 117.67 km²...
into Oku. I seemed to be possessed by the spirits of wanderlust, and they all but deprived me of my senses. The guardian spirits of the road beckoned, and I could not settle down to work.
I patched my torn trousers and changed the cord on my bamboo hat. To strengthen my legs for the journey I had moxaMoxibustion is a traditional Chinese medicine therapy using moxa, or mugwort herb. It plays an important role in the traditional medical systems of China, Japan, Korea, Vietnam, Tibet, and Mongolia. Suppliers usually age the mugwort and grind it up to a fluff; practitioners burn the fluff or...
burned on my shins. By then I could think of nothing but the moon at Matsushimais a group of islands in Miyagi Prefecture, Japan. There are some 260 tiny islands covered in pines – hence the name – and is ranked as one of the Three Views of Japan....
. When I sold my cottage and moved to Sampū’s villa, to stay until I started on my journey, I hung this poem on a post in my hut:
- kusa no to mo Even a thatched hut
- sumikawaru yo zo May change with a new owner
- hina no ie Into a doll’s house.
- This became the first of an eight-verse sequence.
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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, also romanized as Yedo or Yeddo, is the former name of the Japanese capital Tokyo, and was the seat of power for the Tokugawa shogunate which ruled Japan from 1603 to 1868...
(modern-day
Tokyo, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...
) 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
Saigyōwas a famous Japanese poet of the late Heian and early Kamakura period.-Biography:Born Satō Norikiyo in Kyoto to a noble family, he lived during the traumatic transition of power between the old court nobles and the new samurai warriors. After the start of the Age of Mappō , Buddhism was...
, whom Bashō praised as the greatest
wakaWaka or Yamato uta is a genre of classical Japanese verse and one of the major genres of Japanese literature...
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 thousands of miles mostly on foot. Of all of Bashō's works, this is the best known.
This
poetic diaryPoetic diary, or Japanese poetic diary, is an English term coined by the Princeton University scholar/translator Earl Miner in his book, Japanese Poetic Diaries. In Japan, poetic diaries date back to Ki no Tsurayuki's Tosa Nikki compiled in roughly 935...
is in the form known as
haibunHaibun is a literary composition that combines prose and haiku. The range of haibun is broad and includes, but is not limited to, the following forms of prose: autobiography, biography, diary, essay, history, prose poem, short story and travel literature....
, a combination of
proseProse is the most typical form of written language, applying ordinary grammatical structure and natural flow of speech rather than rhythmic structure...
and
haiku' , plural haiku, is a very short form of Japanese poetry typically characterised by three qualities:* The essence of haiku is "cutting"...
. It contains many references to
ConfuciusConfucius , literally "Master Kong", was a Chinese thinker and social philosopher of the Spring and Autumn Period....
, Saigyō, ancient Chinese poetry, and even
The Tale of the Heikeis an epic account of the struggle between the Taira and Minamoto clans for control of Japan at the end of the 12th century in the Genpei War...
. 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 shrineis a Shinto shrine located in Nikkō, Tochigi Prefecture, Japan. It is part of the "Shrines and Temples of Nikkō", a UNESCO World Heritage Site.Tōshō-gū is dedicated to Tokugawa Ieyasu, the founder of the Tokugawa shogunate. Initially built in 1617, during the Edo period, while Ieyasu's son Hidetada...
at
Nikkōis a city in the mountains of Tochigi Prefecture, Japan. Approximately 140 km north of Tokyo and 35 km west of Utsunomiya, the capital of Tochigi Prefecture, it is a popular destination for Japanese and international tourists...
, the
Shirakawais a city in Fukushima, Japan. It is located in the southern portion of the prefecture.The 2003 estimated population was 48,297 and the density in that year was 410.44 persons per km². The total area was 117.67 km²...
barrier, the islands of
Matsushimais a group of islands in Miyagi Prefecture, Japan. There are some 260 tiny islands covered in pines – hence the name – and is ranked as one of the Three Views of Japan....
, Hiraizumi,
Sakatais a city located in Yamagata Prefecture, Japan.As of 2006, the city has an estimated population of 116,883 and the population density of 193.92 persons per km². The total area is 602.74 km².-History:The city was founded on April 1, 1933...
,
KisakataKisakata was a town located in Yuri District, Akita, Japan.On October 1, 2005, along with the town of Konoura, Kisakata was merged into the town of Nikaho, all from Yuri District, to become the city of Nikaho....
, and
Etchūwas an old province in central Honshū, on the Sea of Japan side. It was sometimes called , with Echizen and Echigo Provinces. It bordered Echigo, Shinano, Hida, Kaga, and Noto provinces...
. He and Sora parted at
Yamanakais a city located in Kaga, Ishikawa Prefecture in Japan. It is in close proximity to Komatsu. It is famous for its onsen, or natural hot spring baths, and has many ryokan where guests can relax and enjoy the baths. The Daishoji River runs through the town, and it is a popular tourist spot for both...
, but at
Ōgakiis a city located in Gifu Prefecture, Japan. It was incorporated as a city on April 1, 1918. As of July 2011, the city has an estimated population of 160,999 and a total area of .Ōgaki was the final destination for the haiku poet Matsuo Bashō...
he briefly met up with a few of his other disciples before departing again to the
Ise Shrineis a Shinto shrine dedicated to goddess Amaterasu-ōmikami, located in the city of Ise in Mie prefecture, Japan. Officially known simply as , Ise Jingū is in fact a shrine complex composed of a large number of Shinto shrines centered on two main shrines, and ....
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. Based on differences between draft versions of the account, Sora's diary, 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
ZenZen is a school of Mahāyāna Buddhism founded by the Buddhist monk Bodhidharma. The word Zen is from the Japanese pronunciation of the Chinese word Chán , which in turn is derived from the Sanskrit word dhyāna, which can be approximately translated as "meditation" or "meditative state."Zen...
meditationMeditation is any form of a family of practices in which practitioners train their minds or self-induce a mode of consciousness to realize some benefit....
under the guidance of the Priest Buccho, though it is uncertain whether Bashō ever attained
enlightenmentThe English term enlightenment has commonly been used in the western world to translate several Sanskrit, Pali, Chinese and Japanese terms and concepts, especially bodhi, prajna, kensho, satori and buddhahood.-Insight:...
. The Japanese Zen scholar
D. T. SuzukiDaisetsu Teitaro Suzuki was a Japanese author of books and essays on Buddhism, Zen and Shin that were instrumental in spreading interest in both Zen and Shin to the West. Suzuki was also a prolific translator of Chinese, Japanese, and Sanskrit literature...
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'"). Thus, 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."
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. ISBN 9780140441857
- Bashō, Matsuo. "The Narrow Road Through the Provinces". Japanese Poetic Diaries. Ed. and trans. Earl Miner. Berkeley: University of California Press
University of California Press, also known as UC Press, is a publishing house associated with the University of California that engages in academic publishing. It was founded in 1893 to publish books and papers for the faculty of the University of California, established 25 years earlier in 1868...
, 1969. Print.
- Bashō, Matsuo. "The Narrow Road to the Interior". Classical Japanese Prose: An Anthology. Ed. and trans. Helen Craig McCullough
Helen Craig McCullough was an eminent scholar of classical Japanese poetry and prose. Born in California, she graduated from Berkeley in 1939 with a degree in political science. After the outbreak of World War II, she entered the U.S. Navy’s Japanese Language School in Boulder, Colorado...
. Stanford: Stanford University PressThe Stanford University Press is the publishing house of Stanford University. In 1892, an independent publishing company was established at the university. The first use of the name "Stanford University Press" in a book's imprinting occurred in 1895...
, 1990. Print.
- Bashō, Matsuo. Narrow Road to the Interior. Trans. Sam Hamill
Sam Hamill is an american poet and the co-founder of Copper Canyon Press along with Bill O’Daly and Tree Swenson.He is also the initiator of the Poets Against War movement...
. Boston: ShambhalaShambhala Publications is an independent publishing company based in Boston, Massachusetts. According to the company, it specializes in "books that present creative and conscious ways of transforming the individual, the society, and the planet". Many of its books deal with Buddhism or related topics...
(Shambhala Centaur Editions), 1991. Print. ISBN 9780877736448 (Presentation)
- Reedition: Bashō, Matsuo. Narrow Road to the Interior and other writings. Trans. Sam Hamill. 2nd ed. Boston: Shambhala (Shambhala Classics), 2000. Print. ISBN 9781570627163 (Presentation)
- Bashō, Matsuo. Back Roads to Far Towns: Bashō's Oku-no-hosomichi. Trans. Cid Corman
Cid Corman 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.-Early life and writing:...
and Kamaike Susumu. 2nd ed. (1st ed. Grossman, 1968.) Hopewell: Ecco PressEcco Press is a publishing imprint of HarperCollins, who acquired it in 1999. It was founded in 1971 by Daniel Halpern as an independent publishing company. Until 1994 the press was the publisher of the literary magazine Antaeus.- External links :**...
, 1996. Print. ISBN 9780880014670
- Reedition: Bashō, Matsuo. Back Roads to Far Towns: Bashō's Travel Journal. Trans. Cid Corman and Kamaike Susumu. Buffalo: White Pine Press, 2004. Print. ISBN 9781893996311 (Preview on Google Books) (Review of the book at Modern Haiku)
- 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. ISBN 9781880656204
- Bashō, Matsuo. The Narrow Road to Oku. Trans. Donald Keene. Tokyo: Kodansha International, 1996b. Print. ISBN 9784770020284
- 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
, the largest Japanese publisher, produces the manga magazines Nakayoshi, Afternoon, Evening, and Weekly Shonen Magazine, as well as more literary magazines such as Gunzō, Shūkan Gendai, and the Japanese dictionary Nihongo Daijiten. The company has its headquarters in Bunkyō, Tokyo...
, 2002. Print. ISBN 9784770028587
- Chilcott, Tim. "Bashō: Oku no Hosomichi". Tim Chilcott LITERARY TRANSLATIONS. August 2004. Web. Consulted on 13 November 2010.
Secondary literature
- Keene, Donald
Donald Lawrence Keene is a Japanologist, scholar, teacher, writer, translator and interpreter of Japanese literature and culture. Keene was University Professor Emeritus and Shincho Professor Emeritus of Japanese Literature at Columbia University, where he taught for over fifty years...
. Seeds in the Heart: Japanese Literature from Earliest Times to the Late Sixteenth Century. New York: Columbia University PressColumbia University Press is a university press based in New York City, and affiliated with Columbia University. It is currently directed by James D. Jordan and publishes titles in the humanities and sciences, including the fields of literary and cultural studies, history, social work, sociology,...
, 1999. Print. ISBN 0-231-11441-9
- Keene, Donald. Travelers of a Hundred Ages. New York: Columbia University Press, 1999a. Print. ISBN 9780231114370
- Norman, Howard. "On the Trail of a Ghost". National Geographic. February 2008, 136-149. Print.
- Shirane, Haruo. Traces of Dreams: Landscape, Cultural Memory, and the Poetry of Bashō. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1998. Print. ISBN 0-8047-3099-7 (Preview on Google Books)
- Suzuki, Daisetz Teitaro. The Awakening of Zen. London: Shambhala, 1980. Print.
External links