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RELATED TOPIC:
BASHÔ (1644-1694)

RELATED TOPIC:
CHIKAMATSU MONZAEMON (1653-1725)

RELATED TOPIC:
SAIKAKU (1642-1693)

RELATED TOPIC:
TOKUGAWA JAPAN

 
NARROW ROAD TO THE DEEP NORTH
(OKU NO HOSOMICHI)
by Matsuo Bashô (1644-1694)

Travel as Metaphor

Haruo Shirane :: In Narrow Road to the Deep North, the journey becomes the great metaphor. Travel is life. Life is travel. There's no end to travel; you die on the road, you're born on the road. And the road takes on several kinds of meanings. But it's a difficult journey, that's the narrow road. It's not an easy road, and the traveler is not just someone who's going sightseeing. He's someone who has cast aside all his belongings and basically becomes a beggar. And it's through that journey that he produces poetry.

Donald Keene :: The account of the narrow road of Oku is short. It's only about thirty-five pages, and most is text, but it took him five years to write it. What this means, of course, is endless polishing, endless manipulation of the imagery until he was satisfied that he'd achieved it. And, as a result, it is the most popular work of Japanese classical literature. More people know this work than any other in Japanese literature. I don't think you can find a Japanese who has not at least had some exposure to it because of its peculiar attraction — the beauty of the poetry, the sensitivity to the different landscapes that he traveled across, and the atmosphere engendered by Bashô the man himself.

[Excerpt from Narrow Road to the Deep North]

In this little book of travel is included everything under the sky, not only that which is hoary and dry but also that which is young and colorful, not only that which is strong and imposing but also that which is feeble and ephemeral. As we turn every corner of the narrow road to the deep north, we sometimes stand up unawares to applaud, and we sometimes fall flat to resist the agonizing pains we feel in the depths of our hearts. There are also times when we feel like taking to the roads ourselves, seizing the raincoat lying near by, or times when we feel like sitting down till our legs take root, enjoying the scene we picture before our eyes.

Excerpt from Yuasa, Nobuyuki, trans., The Narrow Road to the Deep North and Other Travel Sketches (Middlesex, England: Penguin Books, Ltd., 1966), p. 143.