Matsuo Bashō ; born Matsuo Kinsaku, later known as Matsuo Chūemon Munefusa was the most famous Japanese poet of the Edo period. During his lifetime, Bashō was recognized for his works in the collaborative haikai no renga form; today, after centuries of commentary, he is recognized as the greatest master of haiku. He is also well known for his travel essays beginning with Records of a Weather-Exposed Skeleton (1684), written after his journey west to Kyoto and Nara. Matsuo Bashō's poetry is internationally renowned, and, in Japan, many of his poems are reproduced on monuments and traditional sites. Although Bashō is famous in the West for his hokku, he himself believed his best work lay in leading and participating in renku. As he himself said, "Many of my followers can write hokku as well as I can. Where I show who I really am is in linking haikai verses."
Portrait of Bashō by Hokusai, late 18th century
Bashō's supposed birthplace in Iga Province
A statue commemorating Matsuo Bashō's arrival in Ōgaki
Bashō's grave in Ōtsu, Shiga Prefecture
The Edo period , also known as the Tokugawa period , is the period between 1603 and 1868 in the history of Japan, when Japan was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and the country's 300 regional daimyo. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengoku period, the Edo period was characterized by economic growth, strict social order, isolationist foreign policies, a stable population, overall peace, and popular enjoyment of arts and culture, colloquially referred to as Ōedo .
Tokugawa Ieyasu, first shōgun of the Tokugawa shogunate
The San Juan Bautista is represented in Claude Deruet's painting of Hasekura Tsunenaga in Rome in 1617, as a galleon with Hasekura's flag (red manji on orange background) on the top mast.
A bird's-eye view of Nagasaki Bay, with the Dejima foreign trading post island at mid-left (1833)
Itinerary and dates of the travels of Hasekura Tsunenaga. Prior to Panama Canal, caravans carried goods across Central America.