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.
In Chapter V of the early 12th century Tale of Genji, the young Shining Prince kidnaps nine-year-old Murasakito raise her in seclusion to become the love of his life when she matures. A few years later, in Chapter IX, afterhis wife Aoi dies from childbirth, one night he finally rapes the teenager:
Now he could not restrain himself. It would be a shock, of course.
What had happened? Her women had no way of knowing when the line had been crossed. One morning Genji was up early and Murasaki stayed on and on in bed.
It was not at all like her to sleep so late. Might she be unwell?
…She had not dreamed he had anything of the sort on his mind.
What a fool she had been, to repose her whole confidence in so gross and unscrupulous a man. It was almost noon when Genji returned. “They say you’re not feeling well. What can be the trouble? I was hoping for a game of Go.” She pulled the covers over her head. Her women discreetly withdrew. He came up beside her. “What a way to behave, what a very unpleasant way to behave.
Try to imagine, please, what these women are thinking.” He drew back the covers. She was bathed in perspiration
and the hair at her forehead was matted from weeping. “Dear me. This does not augur well at all.” He tried in every way he could think of to comfort her, but she seemed genuinely upset and did not offer so much as a word in reply. “Very well. You will see no more of me. I do have my pride.”
What an asshole! Finally, to make Murasaki feel better, Genji arranges for a box of inoko no mochi, traditional glutinous rice cakes sweetened for children and colored to resemble the spotted fur of cute little baby boars, to be delivered to her – although the text does not say whether the “child” felt any improvement. Later on,
She now refused to look at him, and his jokes only sent her into a more sullen silence.
Genji, because he is a man, expects her to forget herself and the violation of her body and heart to take on his point of view; he cannot imagine why she does not go along with his needs and his agenda. He actually believes some sweets will remove her bitter feelings. A woman in ancient Japan, Murasaki Shikibu (who took her pen name from the character in the Tale), seven centuries before Mary Wollstonecraft’s Vindication of the Rights ofWomen, composed this remarkable sketch of male chauvinism justifying the rape of a young virgin.
Six centuries later, Doho begins and Basho follows:
Woman with a cough behind door of weeds
Upon leaving, sweet baby boar mochi, his gift to her
女咳たる / 藪の戸の内
きぬぎぬの / 亥の子の餅を / 配るとて
Onna sekitaru / yabu no to no uchi
Kinu ginu no / inoko no mochi o / kubaru to te
Doho creates a woman living in a shabby hut, coughing and feeling poorly; the scene seems to be from a romantic tale, so Basho imagines a morning after sleeping together, the man about to leave her “door of weeds.” Eager to make this woman feel better, he gives her the traditional mochi cakes – which sends us on a journey into the Tale of Genji. We cannot say whether the woman with the cough felt any better from the sweets, however if you get a chance to eat inoko mochi – which confectionary shops in Japan sell in the winter – maybe you will recall this stanza-pair and the remarkable scene of Young Murasaki after being raped. The verse, by itself, is not so interesting, however it guides us to where the Tale of Genji exposes male and female viewpoints about teenage girls and nonconsensual sex which have existed, in varying degrees, throughout the ages. Basho, though he was a man in a patriarchal society, embraced and supported the feminism of Murasaki Shikibu.
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 presentation, to receive all royalties from sales, to spread Basho’s wisdom worldwide and preserve for future generations.
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.
