Oku no Hosomichi

Oku No Hosomichi

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Oku no Hosomichi

meaning "Narrow road to/of the interior", translated alternately as The Narrow Road to the Deep North and The Narrow Road to the Interior) is a major work by the Japan

Japan

Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, People's Republic of 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....
ese poet

Poet

A poet is a person who writes poetry....
, Matsuo Basho

Matsuo Basho

was the most famous poet of the Edo period in Japan. During his lifetime, Basho was recognized for his works in the collaborative Renku form; today, after centuries of commentary, he is recognized as a master of brief and clear haiku....
(1644–1694).

The text is written in the form of a travel diary

Travel literature

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meaning "Narrow road to/of the interior", translated alternately as The Narrow Road to the Deep North and The Narrow Road to the Interior) is a major work by the Japan

Japan

Poet

A poet is a person who writes poetry....
, Matsuo Basho

Matsuo Basho

Travel literature

Travel literature is travel writing of literature value. Travel literature typically records the experiences of an author tourism a place for the pleasure of travel....
, and it was penned as he made an epic and dangerous journey on foot through feudal Japan. 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, Basho suggests that "every day is a journey, and the journey itself home."

Of Oku no Hosomichi, Miyazawa Kenji once suggested, "It was as if the very soul of Japan had itself written it".

The text

Opening sentences

Basho's introductory sentences are the most quoted words of the text of Oku no Hosomichi:

Japanese

Japanese language

IPA: [n?iho?go] is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is related to the Ryukyuan languages....

English

English language

English is a West Germanic language that originated in Anglo-Saxon England and has lingua franca status in many parts of the world as a result of the military, economic, scientific, political and cultural influence of the British Empire in the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries and that of the United States from the mid 20th century onwa...

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Many of the men of old died on their travels, and I, too, for years past have been stirred by the sigh 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 a close.

When spring came and there was mist in the air, I thought of crossing the Barrier of Shirakawa

Shirakawa, Fukushima

Shirakawa is a city in Fukushima Prefecture, Japan. It is located in the southern portion of the prefecture.The 2003 estimated population was 48,297 and the population density in that year was 410.44 persons per km?....
into Oku.

Everything about me was bewitched by the travel gods, and my thoughts were no longer mine to control. The spirits of the road beckoned, and I could do no work at all.

Plot

Oku no Hosomichi was written based on a journey taken by Basho in the late spring of 1689. He and his traveling companion Kawai Sora(????) departed from Edo

Edo

, literally: Headlands and bays-door, "estuary", ), also Romanization of Japanese as Yedo or Yeddo, is the Geographical renaming of the Capital of Japan Tokyo, and was the seat of power for the Tokugawa shogunate which ruled Japan from 1603 to 1868....
(modern-day Tokyo

Tokyo

, officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan of Japan and located on the eastern side of the main island Honshu. The twenty-three special wards of Tokyo, each governed as a city, cover the area that was once the Tokyo City in the eastern part of the prefecture, and total over 8 million people....
) for the northerly interior region known as Oku, propelled mostly by a desire to see the places about which the old poets wrote. Specifically, he was emulating Saigyo

Saigyo

Saigyo Hoshi was a famous Japanese people poet of the late Heian period and early Kamakura period....
, whom Basho praised as the greatest waka

Waka (poetry)

Waka or Yamato uta is a classical Japanese poetry form and one of the major genres of Japanese literature. The term was coined during the Heian period, and was used to distinguish Japanese-language poetry from Kanshi , Chinese-language poetry written by Japanese poets, and later from renga....
poet; Basho made a point of visiting all the sites mentioned in Saigyo's verse. Travel in those days was very dangerous, but Basho 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 Basho's works, this is the best known.

The text is a mixture of prose

Prose

Prose is writing that resembles everyday Speech communication. The word "prose" is derived from the Latin prosa, which literally translates to "straightforward"....
and verse

Verse (poetry)

A verse is formally a single line in a metrical composition, e.g. poetry. However, the word has come to represent any division or grouping of words in such a composition, which traditionally had been referred to as a stanza....
, with many references to Confucius

Confucius

This articles talks about a Chinese thinker and social philosopher. For a food company in China with its brand name "Master Kong", please refer to Tingyi Holding Corporation....
, Saigyo

Saigyo

Saigyo Hoshi was a famous Japanese people poet of the late Heian period and early Kamakura period....
, ancient Chinese poetry, and even the Tale of the Heike

The Tale of the Heike

is an Epic poetry 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

Travel

Travel is the change in Location of people on a trip through the means of transport from one location to another. Travel is most commonly for recreation , for business trip or for commuting; but may be for numerous other reasons, such as migration, fleeing war, etc....
account, and Basho vividly relates the unique poetic

Poetic

Poetic may refer to:* Poetry, or a relation thereof.* Anthony Ian Berkeley, a deceased rapper and hip hop producer....
essence of each stop in his travels. Stops on his journey include the Tokugawa shrine

Nikko Tosho-gu

is a Shinto shrine located in Nikko, Tochigi, Tochigi Prefecture, Japan. It is part of the "Shrines and Temples of Nikko", a UNESCO World Heritage Site....
at Nikko

Nikko, Tochigi

is a cities of Japan located in the mountains of Tochigi Prefecture, Japan. Located approximately 140 km north of Tokyo and approximately 35 km west of Utsunomiya, Tochigi, the capital of Tochigi, it is a popular destination for Japanese and international tourists, housing the mausoleum of shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu and that of his grandson...
, the Shirakawa

Shirakawa, Fukushima

Matsushima

Matsushima is 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, Sakata

Sakata, Yamagata

Sakata is a cities of Japan 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 km?....
, Kisakata

Kisakata, Akita

Kisakata was a towns of Japan located in Yuri District, Akita, Akita Prefecture, Japan.On October 12005, along with the town of Konoura, Akita, Kisakata was merged into the city of Nikaho, Akita....
, and Etchu

Etchu Province

was an old provinces of Japan in central Honshu, on the Sea of Japan side. It bordered Echigo Province, Shinano Province, Hida province, Kaga Province, and Noto Province provinces....
. He and Sora parted at Yamanaka, but at Ogaki

Ogaki, Gifu

is a cities of Japan located in Gifu Prefecture, Japan. It was incorporated as a city on April 1, 1918. As of May 1, 2007, the city had an estimated population of 162,837 and a total area of ....
he briefly met up with a few of his other disciples before departing again to the Ise Shrine

Ise Shrine

Ise Shrine is a Jinja dedicated to goddess Amaterasu, located in the city of Ise, Mie in Mie prefecture, Japan....
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 Basho took a number of artistic liberties in the writing. An example of this is that in the Senjushu ("Selection of Tales") attributed to Saigyo, 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. Basho similarly includes in Oku no Hosomichi a tale of him having an exchange with prostitutes staying in the same inn, but Sora mentions nothing.

English translations

Yuasa, Nobuyuki, trans. The Narrow Road to the Deep North and Other Travel Sketches.Penguin Books, 1966.
Corman, Cid
Cid Corman

Cid Corman was an American poetry, 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....
and Kamaike Susumu, trans. Back Roads to Far Towns. Grossman, 1968.
Miner, Earl, trans. The Narrow Road Through the Provinces. In Japanese Poetic Diaries. University of California Press, 1969.
Britton, Dorothy, trans. Haiku Journey: Basho's Narrow Road to a Far Province. Kodansha, 1974.
McCullough, Helen Craig
Helen Craig McCullough

Helen Craig McCullough was an eminent scholar of classical Japanese poetry and prose. Born in California, she graduated from University of California, Berkeley in 1939 with a degree in political science....
, trans. The Narrow Road to the Interior, in Classical Japanese Prose: An Anthology, 1990.
Hiroaki Sato, transl. Bashô’s Narrow Road, 1996.
Keene, Donald
Donald Keene

Donald Lawrence Keene is a Japanology, scholar, teacher, writer, translator and interpreter of Japanese literature and Japanese culture. Keene is currently University Professor emeritus and Shincho Professor Emeritus of Japanese Literature at Columbia University, where he has taught for over fifty years....
, trans. The Narrow Road to Oku. Kodansha, 1996. An earlier and slightly different partial translation appeared in Keene’s
Donald Keene

Donald Lawrence Keene is a Japanology, scholar, teacher, writer, translator and interpreter of Japanese literature and Japanese culture. Keene is currently University Professor emeritus and Shincho Professor Emeritus of Japanese Literature at Columbia University, where he has taught for over fifty years....
Anthology of Japanese Literature, 1955.
Hamill, Sam, trans. The Narrow Road to the Interior and Other Writings, a.k.a. The Essential Bashô, 1998.
Chilcott, Tim, trans. , on the Tim Chilcott LITERARY TRANSLATIONS website, 2004.

See also

Haibun
Haibun

Haibun 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, historiography, prose poem, short story and travel....
Japanese Poetic Diaries

External links

Ishikawa Prefecture
Ishikawa Prefecture

is a Prefectures of Japan of Japan located in the Chubu region on Honshu island. The capital is Kanazawa, Ishikawa....

Manuscript scans: , , ; Waseda University Library
Waseda University Library

The library of Waseda University is one of the largest in Japan, and is a unique collection. It was established in 1882, and currently holds some 4.5 million volumes and 46,000 serials....