Basho (1644-1694) is the most famous Haiku poet of Japan. He made
his living as a teacher and writer of Haiku and is celebrated for his
many travels around Japan, which he recorded in travel journals. This
translation of his most mature journal, Oku-No-Hosomichi, details the
most arduous part of a nine-month journey with his friend and disciple,
Sora, through the backlands north of the capital, west to the Japan Sea
and back toward Kyoto. More than a record of the journey, Basho's
journal is a poetic sequence that has become a center of the Japanese
mind/heart. Ten illustrations by Hide Oshiro illuminate the text.
Cid Corman was well-known as a poet, translator and editor of
Origin, the ground-breaking poetry magazine.