Matsuo Bashō: Master of Haiku Timeline

Matsuo Bashō: Master of Haiku 24

1644 Matsuo Bashō is born in Iga Province Born Matsuo Kinsaku near Ueno in Iga Province Bashō was born near Ueno in Iga Province, in a family of low-ranking samurai status who lived by farming. His childhood name was Kinsaku, and later Munefusa.
1656 Matsuo Bashō's father dies Death of Matsuo Yozaemon Bashō's father, Matsuo Yozaemon, died when Bashō was about twelve. His elder brother became head of the family.
1662 Matsuo Bashō serves Tōdō Yoshitada and begins writing haikai His earliest known poems date from about this time As a young man Bashō served Tōdō Yoshitada, heir of a branch of the ruling Tōdō clan of Iga. The two shared a love of haikai under the pen name Sengin, and Bashō's earliest datable poems come from the early 1660s.
1666 Matsuo Bashō's patron Tōdō Yoshitada dies Bashō leaves samurai service Yoshitada died young in 1666. With his patron gone, Bashō left the household and gave up any future as a samurai retainer.
1672 Matsuo Bashō compiles Kai Ōi (The Seashell Game) His first published collection, offered at Ueno Tenmangū shrine Bashō compiled Kai Ōi, a haikai contest anthology in which he served as judge, and dedicated it at the Ueno Tenmangū shrine. It was his first publication.
1672 Matsuo Bashō moves to Edo Leaves Iga for the shogun's capital Bashō moved to Edo to make his way as a haikai poet in the fast-growing capital. He joined its literary circles and gradually gathered pupils.
1675 Matsuo Bashō joins Nishiyama Sōin's Danrin circle as Tōsei Takes the pen name Tōsei In 1675 Bashō took part in a linked-verse session with Nishiyama Sōin, founder of the playful Danrin school. Around this time he began using the pen name Tōsei.
1677 Matsuo Bashō becomes a haikai master and works on the Kanda waterworks Teaches pupils while doing administrative work on Edo's water supply By the late 1670s Bashō was a recognised haikai master (sōshō) with his own pupils, among them Takarai Kikaku and Sugiyama Sanpū. To earn money he also did work connected with the Kanda aqueduct.
1680 Matsuo Bashō retreats to a hut in Fukagawa Leaves the centre of Edo for a quiet life across the Sumida River In the winter of 1680 Bashō left the busy city centre for a simple hut in Fukagawa, provided by his pupil Sanpū. The move marked his turn toward a more serious, Zen-influenced poetry.
1681 Matsuo Bashō takes his name from a banana plant A pupil's gift of a bashō plant names the Bashō-an hut and the poet In 1681 a pupil planted a bashō (Japanese banana) plant beside the Fukagawa hut, which became known as the Bashō-an. The poet soon took Bashō as his pen name.
1683 Matsuo Bashō's mother dies in Iga Bashō learns of his mother's death Bashō's mother died at the family home in Iga Ueno in 1683. He visited her grave the next year on his first great journey.
1683 Matsuo Bashō's hut is destroyed in a great Edo fire The Tenna fire burns down the Bashō-an A great fire at the end of Tenna 2, early 1683 in the Western calendar, swept through Edo and destroyed Bashō's hut. His pupils later built him a new Bashō-an.
1684 – 1685 Matsuo Bashō sets out on the journey of Nozarashi Kikō Journal of Bleached Bones in a Field In autumn 1684 Bashō left Edo on his first major journey, west along the Tōkaidō to Ise, his home in Iga, Yoshino and Nagoya. His account, Nozarashi Kikō, was the first of his travel journals.
1686 Matsuo Bashō composes his famous frog poem Furuike ya kawazu tobikomu mizu no oto In spring 1686 Bashō wrote "The old pond / a frog jumps in / the sound of water," now the best-known haiku in the world. It was the opening poem of the frog-poem anthology Kawazu Awase.
1687 – 1688 Matsuo Bashō begins the journey of Oi no Kobumi The Knapsack Notebook and Sarashina Kikō Late in 1687 Bashō set out westward again, to Iga, Ise, Yoshino, Suma and Akashi. On the way back in 1688 he went to view the moon at Sarashina, and he wrote both trips up as Oi no Kobumi and Sarashina Kikō.
1687 Matsuo Bashō travels to Kashima to view the harvest moon Kashima Kikō (A Visit to Kashima Shrine) In autumn 1687 Bashō made a short trip to Kashima Shrine to view the harvest moon, with the pupil Sora and the monk Sōha. He wrote it up as Kashima Kikō.
1689 Matsuo Bashō departs Edo on the Narrow Road to the Deep North Begins the journey of Oku no Hosomichi with his pupil Sora On 16 May 1689 Bashō left Edo with Kawai Sora on a long walk through the north of Honshu, covering about 2,400 km. The journey became the basis of Oku no Hosomichi, his masterpiece.
1689 Matsuo Bashō ends the Oku no Hosomichi journey at Ōgaki The journey ends after about five months on the road After passing through Matsushima, Hiraizumi, Kisakata and down the Sea of Japan coast, Bashō reached Ōgaki in Mino in autumn 1689. From there he left for Ise, closing the account of Oku no Hosomichi.
1690 Matsuo Bashō lives at the Genjū-an near Lake Biwa Writes Genjūan no Ki (Record of the Hut of the Phantom Dwelling) In 1690 Bashō spent the summer at the Genjū-an, a hut on a hillside near Lake Biwa. His prose piece about the stay, Genjūan no Ki, is one of his finest haibun.
1691 Matsuo Bashō keeps the Saga Diary at Rakushisha Stays at Mukai Kyorai's cottage in Saga, Kyoto In early summer 1691 Bashō stayed at Rakushisha, the cottage of his pupil Mukai Kyorai in Saga west of Kyoto. He kept a journal of the stay, the Saga Nikki.
1691 Matsuo Bashō's school publishes Sarumino (The Monkey's Straw Raincoat) The defining anthology of the Bashō style Compiled by Kyorai and Nozawa Bonchō under Bashō's guidance, Sarumino came out in 1691. It is regarded as the peak of the Bashō school's linked verse and hokku.
1694 Matsuo Bashō leaves Edo on his final journey Heads west, promoting his ideal of karumi (lightness) In the summer of 1694 Bashō left Edo for the last time, travelling west to Iga, Kyoto and the Lake Biwa area. That year the anthology Sumidawara showed his late ideal of karumi, or lightness.
1694 Matsuo Bashō composes his last poem in Osaka Tabi ni yande yume wa kareno wo kakemeguru Ill in Osaka, Bashō dictated "Sick on a journey / my dreams go wandering / over withered fields." It is remembered as his farewell poem.
1694 Matsuo Bashō dies in Osaka Buried at Gichū-ji temple in Ōtsu Bashō died in Osaka on 28 November 1694, the 12th day of the 10th month of Genroku 7, with his pupils around him. As he had asked, he was buried at Gichū-ji beside Lake Biwa, next to the tomb of Minamoto no Yoshinaka.