1.
Matsuo Basho, Edo-period poet who shaped haiku
The seventeenth-century poet who raised the seventeen-syllable form to serious literature and wrote the travel journal 奥の細道. Usually called simply 芭蕉.
Common expressions
- 芭蕉の句: a verse by Basho
- 奥の細道: The Narrow Road to the Deep North, his best-known work
- 古池や蛙飛びこむ水の音: his most quoted poem, known to nearly everyone
Cultural note
Basho is to haiku what Shakespeare is to English verse: schoolchildren memorise his poems, and towns along his walking route market themselves through him. His name comes up whenever someone writes a haiku, seriously or as a joke about a trip.