Matsuo Basho

Matsuo Basho was born in Iga Province (the current city of Iga Mie Prefecture ), the exact day and month are not known. ^[12] As for the place of birth, there are two theories: the Akasaki theory (the current city of Iga, the former city of Ueno, the village of Akasaka) ^[12] and the Tsuge theory (the current city of Iga, the village of Tsuge). ^[13] This is due to the fact that it is not known exactly when the Matsuo family moved from Tsuge to Akasaka before or after Basho’s birth. He was born into a poor family of samurai Matsuo Yozemaemon ( 松尾 与 左衛 門 ). Basho was the third child and second son in the family, in addition to his older brother, he had four sisters: one older and three younger. Basho's father died when he was 13 years old (1656). ^[12] Over the years, Basho was named after Kinsaku, Hansiti, Toshichiro, Tuemon, Dzinsichiro ( 甚 七郎 ). Basho ( 芭蕉 ) is a literary pseudonym translated as “banana tree” ^[14] .

The father and elder brother of the future poet taught calligraphy at the courts of more affluent samurai, and already at home he received a good education. In his youth he was fond of Chinese poets such as Du Fu (in those days books were already accessible even to middle-class nobles). Since 1664, he studied poetry in Kyoto .

He was in the service of the noble and wealthy samurai Todo Yoshitada ( 藤 堂 良忠 , 1642-1666), with whom he shared his passion for the genre, a popular Japanese form of joint poetic creativity. In 1665, Yoshitada and Basho with several acquaintances composed a hundred-strong haikai. The sudden death of Yoshitada in 1666 put an end to Matsuo's quiet life, and he eventually left the house ^[15] . Having reached Edo (now Tokyo), from 1672 he was here in the public service. The life of the official, however, turned out to be unbearable for him, he left the service and became a poetry teacher.

It is believed that Basho was a slender man of small stature, with delicate graceful features, thick eyebrows and a protruding nose. As is customary with Buddhists, he shaved his head. His health was poor, all his life he suffered from indigestion. According to the letters of the poet, it can be assumed that he was a calm, moderate, unusually caring, generous and faithful man in relation to relatives and friends. Despite the fact that all his life he suffered from poverty, Basho, as a true Buddhist philosopher, almost did not pay attention to this circumstance.

In Edo, Basho lived in a simple hut given to him by one of his students. Near the house, he planted a banana with his own hands. It is believed that it was he who gave the pseudonym to the poet “banana” ( Jap. 芭蕉 Basho:) . Banana palm is repeatedly mentioned in the works of Basho:

* * *

I planted a banana -

And now they have become nasty to me

Weed sprouts ...

* * *

As a banana groans from the wind

As the drops fall in the tub

I hear all night long .

Translation by Vera Markova

In the winter of 1682, the Shogun capital of Edo was once again the victim of a major fire. This fire destroyed the “ Banana Leaf Abode ” - the poet’s home, and Basho himself nearly died in the flame. The poet was very worried about the loss of home. After a short stay in the province of Kai, he returned to Edo, where, with the help of his students, he built a new hut in September 1683 and planted a banana again.

* * *

Soaring larks above

I sat down in the sky to relax, -

On the crest of the pass.

Translation by Vera Markova

After losing his home, Basho rarely wants to stay in one place for a long time. He travels alone, less often - with one or two closest students, in which the poet had no shortage. He does not care much about the resemblance to an ordinary beggar, wandering in search of daily bread. At the age of forty, in August 1684, accompanied by his student Tiri, he sets off on his first journey. In those days, traveling around Japan was very difficult. Numerous outposts and endless passport checks caused travelers a lot of trouble. His travel robe was: a large wicker hat (which the priests usually wore) and a light brown cotton cloak, a bag was hanging on his neck, and in his hand was a staff and a rosary with one hundred and eight beads. In the bag were two or three Chinese and Japanese anthologies, a flute and a tiny wooden gong.

After a many-day trip along the main highway, Tokaido Basho and his companion arrived in Ise province , where they bowed to the Ise temple complex, dedicated to the Shinto goddess of the sun Amaterasu Omiki. In September, they ended up in Basho’s homeland, in Ueno, where the poet saw his brother and found out about the death of his parents. Then Tiri returned home, and Basho after wandering around the provinces of Yamato, Mino and Owari again arrives in Ueno, where he celebrates the new year, and again travels through the provinces of Yamato , Yamashiro , Omi , Owari and Kai and in April returns to his monastery. Basho's journey also served to spread his style, for everywhere poets and aristocrats invited him to visit him. Basho’s fragile health made his fans and students nervous, and they breathed a sigh of relief when he returned home.

Until the end of his life, Basho traveled, drawing strength in the beauties of nature. His fans followed him in droves, everywhere he was greeted by rows of admirers - peasants and samurai. His travels and his genius gave a new flourishing to another prosaic genre - the travel diary genre, which originated in the X century. Basho’s best diary is considered “ Oku no hosomiti ” (“ On the paths of the north ”). It describes the longest journey of Basho with his student named Sora , which began in March 1689 and lasted one hundred and sixty days. In 1691, he again went to Kyoto , three years later again visited his native land, and then came to Osaka. This journey was the last for him. Basho died on November 28, 1694 in Osaka.

Matsuo Basho's fame brought his skill in the genre of comic rank ^[8] , but his main merit was his contribution to the genre and aesthetics of haiku ^[9] . He turned a purely comic genre into a leading lyric one, based on landscape lyrics ^[10] , invested in it a philosophical content ^[11] .

The unity of its figurative system, expressive means, its artistic originality is characterized by elegant simplicity, associativity, harmony of beauty, depth of comprehension of harmony of the world ^[11] . In the 1680s, Basho, under the influence of Zen Buddhism, used the principle of "insight" in his work ^[8] .

Basho left behind seven anthologies , the creation of which was attended by his students: “ Winter Days ” (1684), “ Spring Days ” (1686), “ Stalled Field ” (1689), “ Pumpkin-Goryanka ” (1690), “ The straw cloak of a monkey ”(Book 1, 1691, Book 2, 1698),“ Sack of Coal ”(1694), lyric diaries, preface to books and poems, letters containing judgments about art and the creative process in poetry ^{[8 ]} . Traveling lyric diaries contain descriptions of landscapes, meetings, historical events. They include their own poems and quotes from the works of prominent poets. The best of them is “On the Paths of the North” (“Okuno Hosomiti”, 1689) ^{[9] [9]} . Basho's poetry and aesthetics significantly influenced the Japanese literature of that time ^[8] , the “Basho style” determined the development of Japanese poetry for almost 200 years.

A story about his trip to Japan, Basho entitled . After a year of calm reflection in his hut, in 1687, Basho publishes a collection of poems “Spring Days” ( Japanese 春 の 日 haru no hi ) - himself and his students, where the world saw the poet’s greatest poem - “The Old Pond ”. This is a milestone in the history of Japanese poetry. Here is what Yamaguchi Moichi wrote about this poem in his study “Impressionism as the dominant trend of Japanese poetry”: “The European could not understand what is not only beauty, but even any sense whatsoever, and was surprised that the Japanese can admire things like that. Meanwhile, when a Japanese man hears this poem, his imagination is instantly transferred to an ancient Buddhist temple, surrounded by centuries-old trees, away from the city, where the noise of people is not heard at all. At this temple, there is usually a small pond, which, in turn, may have its own legend. And at dusk in the summer a Buddhist hermit comes out, having just come off his holy books, and comes up with thoughtful steps to this pond. Everything around is quiet, so quiet that you can even hear the frog jump into the water ... "

Not only the complete impeccability of this poem from the point of view of the numerous prescriptions of this laconic form of poetry (although Basho was never afraid to violate them), but also the deep meaning, the quintessence of the beauty of Nature, the tranquility and harmony of the poet’s soul and the world around him, make this haiku a great work of art .

Basho did not really like the traditional reception of marukekatombo , the search for hidden meanings. It is believed that Basho expressed in this poem the principle of mono-no avare - "sad charm."

True beauty lies in the simplicity of the images, Basho believed, and told his students that he was striving for poems "as small as the Sunagawa River."

A deep influence on Japanese art was provided by the Zen Buddhism School, which came to Japan from China. The principles of Zen entered the practice of arts, becoming their basis, forming a characteristic style of Japanese creativity, characterized by brevity, detachment and a subtle perception of beauty. It was Zen, which determined the artist’s attitude, that allowed Basho to turn the emerging literary trend “haikai” (lit. “comic”) into a unique phenomenon, a way of perceiving the world in which creativity can aesthetically reflect the beauty of the world and show people in it without using complex structures, minimal means, with the accuracy necessary and sufficient for the task.

An analysis of the creative heritage of the poet and writer allows us to highlight several basic philosophical and aesthetic principles of Zen, which Basho followed, which determined his views on art. One of these is the concept of “eternal loneliness” - wabi (vivikta dharma). Its essence consists in a special state of detachment, passivity of a person when he is not involved in a movement, often fussy and not filled with any serious meaning, of the outside world. Wabi leads us to the concepts of seclusion, to leading a reclusive lifestyle - a person is not only passive, but consciously chooses the path to escape from the hectic life, secluded in his humble abode. Detachment from the material world helps on the path to enlightenment, to gaining a true, simple, life. Hence the emergence of the ideal of “poverty”, since excessive material worries can only distract from the state of pacified sadness and prevent one from seeing the world around in its original beauty. Hence minimalism, when in order to feel the charm of spring, it’s enough to see grass coming out from under the snow, without having to see the lush sakura blossoms, the melting snow and the riot of spring streams ^[16] .

The characteristic rejection of generally accepted ethics characteristic of Zen ^[17] , however, does not mean its absence. In Japanese culture, ethics in Zen found expression in ritual forms through which expression occurs, albeit very meanly, in relation to the world and people. The corresponding ideas were embodied in the Japanese aesthetic worldview of Wabi Sabi .

Living in a modest hut is not only and not so much following your desires, it is, more importantly, directly the path of creativity, which is expressed in poetry ^[16] .

The number of poems in which the theme of poverty was written by Basho in the period 1680-1682 is very significant. It should be noted that the modest, and sometimes simply difficult living conditions did not necessarily mean the difficult mental state of the poet himself. On the contrary, in his attempts to find harmony in himself and express in his work the harmony of the world around him, Basho remains calm, and the maximum of his grief is often sadness and sadness. Basho's friends visiting the poet in his hut saw him as a kind and welcoming host, ready to share a haiku with them, full of carelessness and lightness. And if wealth is not considered to be material values, but the depth of responsiveness and cordiality towards people, then the explanation of the concept of “wabi” as the “beauty of poverty” or “luxurious poverty” is fully applicable to Basho and his work ^[16] .

Another sign of reduced ethics in Zen, which manifested itself in the poetry of the Japanese, can be considered the use of humor in the description of various phenomena of the world. Basho is able to smile where it would seem necessary to show compassion or pity, or laughs where another would have experienced dubious emotion. Detachment and calm contemplation - they allow the artist to have fun in various difficult situations. As the philosopher Henri Bergson noted, "... step aside, look at life as an indifferent viewer: a lot of dramas will turn into comedy." Indifference or, in other words, insensitivity - are rooted in Zen, but it’s hardly possible to reproach Basho for indifference, because laughter is a way to overcome the hardships of life, including his own, and most importantly - really the ability to laugh at oneself, sometimes even very ironic, describing a difficult life in wanderings:

Although the category of comic is not separately formulated in the literary direction of haikai, it is obvious that it is an essential part of haikai aesthetics. Its roots go back to the “okashi” tradition, which arose in the early period of Japanese literature.

The principle of “eternal loneliness”, freeing the creator from the bustle of the world, leads him along the road from utilitarian interests and goals to his highest destiny. Thus, creativity takes on a sacred meaning, it becomes a guideline on the path of life. From the entertainment as it was in youth, from the way to achieve success and gain recognition by defeating rivals, as it seemed during the heyday, in later years the poet’s view of poetry changes to the point of view that it was his true destination, it was he who led him along the path of life. The desire to free this sacred meaning from any signs of commercialism, to protect it, makes Basho write in the afterword to the poetry collection Minasiguri (Empty Chestnuts, 1683): ​​“Wabi and poetry (fugue) are far from everyday needs. These are chestnuts that are eaten by bugs, which people did not pick up when they visited the Saigyo hut in the mountains ” ^[16] .

In honor of Basho named on Mercury ^[19] .

• Mukai Korei
• Hattori Ransetsu
• Hattori doho

• Matsuo Basho / Boronina I.A. // Pawnshop - Mesitol. - M .: Soviet Encyclopedia, 1974. - (The Great Soviet Encyclopedia : [in 30 vol.] / Ch. Ed. A. M. Prokhorov ; 1969-1978, vol. 15).
• Basho / Toropygina M.V. // “Banquet Campaign” 1904 - Big Irgiz. - M .: Big Russian Encyclopedia, 2005. - P. 84. - ( Big Russian Encyclopedia : [in 35 vols.] / Ch. Ed. Yu. S. Osipov ; 2004—2017, vol. 3). - ISBN 5-85270-331-1 .
• Breslavets T. I. Overnight on the way: poems and wanderings of Matsuo Basho. - Vldv. : Publishing house Dalnevost. University, 2002 .-- 212 p. - ISBN 5-7444-1316-2 .
• Breslavets T.I. Poetry of Matsuo Basho / Otv. ed. T.P. Grigorieva . - M .: Nauka, 1981. - 152 p.
• Grigoryeva T.P., Logunova V.V. Matsuo Basho // Japanese literature. Short essay. - M .: Nauka, 1964 .-- S. 45-52. - 282 p.
• Shirane H. Traces of Dreams: Landscape, Cultural Memory, and the Poetry of Basho: [ eng. ] . - Stanford University Press, 1998 .-- 400 p. - ISBN 978-0-8047-3098-3 .

• Matsuo Basho at Wikilivera
• Bosque de Bambú, camino del haiku - Bashô - Oku no Hosomichi Japones - Español
• Proverbs about Basho at Proci.ru