Basho's thoughts on...
Matsuo Basho 1644~1694
The only substantial
collection in English
of Basho's renku, tanka,
letters and spoken word
along with his haiku, travel
journals, and essays.
The only poet in old-time
literature who paid attention with praise
to ordinary women, children, and teenagers
in hundreds of poems
Hundreds upon hundreds of Basho works
(mostly renku)about women, children,
teenagers, friendship, compassion, love.
These are resources we can use to better
understand ourselves and humanity.
Interesting and heartfelt
(not scholarly and boring)
for anyone concerned with
humanity.
“An astonishing range of
social subject matter and
compassionate intuition”
"The primordial power
of the feminine emanating
from Basho's poetry"
Hopeful, life-affirming
messages from one of
the greatest minds ever.
Through his letters,
we travel through his mind
and discover Basho's
gentleness and humanity.
I plead for your help in
finding a person or group
to take over my 3000 pages of Basho material,
to edit and improve the material, to receive 100%
of royalties, to spread Basho’s wisdom worldwide
and preserve for future generations.
Quotations from Basho Prose
The days and months are
guests passing through eternity.
The years that go by
also are travelers.
The mountains in silence
nurture the spirit;
the water with movement
calms the emotions.
All the more joyful,
all the more caring
Seek not the traces
of the ancients;
seek rather the
places they sought.
basho4humanity
@gmail.com
Plea for Affiliation
Plea For Affiliation
I pray for your help
in finding someone
- individual, university,
or foundation -
to take over my
3000 pages of material,
to cooperate with me
to edit the material,
to receive all royalties
from sales, to spread
Basho’s wisdom worldwide,
and preserve for
future generations.
basho4humanity
@gmail.com
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Letters Year by Year
To know Basho we must know his letters to friends, followers, and his older brother. Reading these letters, we travel through his mind, and discover joy and caring (喜びと労わり）.
Basho Letters of 1681 – 87
Basho left his hometown Iga in 1672, moving to Edo where he found a municipal job while he composed linked verse with other poets, wrote haiku, and gathered followers. In winter of 1680 Ba ...
G-11
Basho Letters of 1688 – 89
For 1688 we have letters to Sampu and Ensui, and for 1689 to Ranran, Ensui, Somu, and Sampu;
the final of these gives an account of Basho on his world-famous journey to the Deep North.
Basho le ...
G-12
Letters of 1690:
Basho came down from his journey to the Deep North in autumn of 1689; for that winter, all of 1690. and most of 1691, he hung out in the Kansai, dividing his time among his hometown Iga ...
G-13
Letters of 1691
Basho’s sojourn in the Kansai area continues into this year with these friendly letters
He began the year ( January 29, 1691, by the Western calender) in Otsu, but then returned to his hometown ...
G-14
Letters of 1692
Basho Letters to Kyokusui, Kyorai, Chigetsu, and Ensui, including the full text of the longest letter he wrote, on a scroll 3.46 meters (more than 11 feet) long
In the winter of 1691 Basho ...
G-15
Letters of Spring of 1693
1693 was a grim year for Basho; from the winter of 1692, he took his 33 year old nephew Toin sick with tuberculosis into his house to care for him until he died at the end of spring. Meanwhile, many o ...
G-16
Letters of Summer 1693 to Spring 1694
The death of his nephew left “traces” - or “scars” - on Basho's spirit. He mourned till late summer when he shut his door to all visitors and refused to go out for a month ...
G-17
Two Letters to Sora:
The humanity in these letters traveling through places and human relations, the amazing array of details, make them masterpieces of letter-writing which should be familiar to anyone who knows Basho.
...
G-18
Letters in the rest of summer, 1694
The first two letters are both dated the same day as the astonishingly long letter to Sora in G-18. Basho must have gotten much energy from being in Zeze on the shore of Lake Biwa. Much of ...
G-19
Basho's Final Letters:
This autumn while Jirobei, with Shiko annd Izen, went to Edo and back, Basho moved on to Iga where they rejoined with him to travel on to Nara and Osaka where Basho met his end.
Letter 21 ...
G-20
Basho's thoughts on...
Matsuo Basho 1644~1694
The only substantial
collection in English
of Basho's renku, tanka,
letters and spoken word
along with his haiku, travel
journals, and essays.
The only poet in old-time
literature who paid attention with praise
to ordinary women, children, and teenagers
in hundreds of poems
Hundreds upon hundreds of Basho works
(mostly renku)about women, children,
teenagers, friendship, compassion, love.
These are resources we can use to better
understand ourselves and humanity.
Interesting and heartfelt
(not scholarly and boring)
for anyone concerned with
humanity.
“An astonishing range of
social subject matter and
compassionate intuition”
"The primordial power
of the feminine emanating
from Basho's poetry"
Hopeful, life-affirming
messages from one of
the greatest minds ever.
Through his letters,
we travel through his mind
and discover Basho's
gentleness and humanity.
I plead for your help in
finding a person or group
to take over my 3000 pages of Basho material,
to edit and improve the material, to receive 100%
of royalties, to spread Basho’s wisdom worldwide
and preserve for future generations.
Quotations from Basho Prose
The days and months are
guests passing through eternity.
The years that go by
also are travelers.
The mountains in silence
nurture the spirit;
the water with movement
calms the emotions.
All the more joyful,
all the more caring
Seek not the traces
of the ancients;
seek rather the
places they sought.
basho4humanity
@gmail.com
Plea for Affiliation
Plea For Affiliation
I pray for your help
in finding someone
- individual, university,
or foundation -
to take over my
3000 pages of material,
to cooperate with me
to edit the material,
to receive all royalties
from sales, to spread
Basho’s wisdom worldwide,
and preserve for
future generations.
basho4humanity
@gmail.com
