Matsuo Bashō begins the journey later told in Oku no Hosomichi
Poet involved
What happened
In 1689, Matsuo Bashō began the northern journey that became Oku no Hosomichi, or The Narrow Road to the Deep North. The travel diary combined prose and haiku-like verse. It joined pilgrimage, landscape, memory and literary allusion.
Literary impact
Bashō refined haibun into a form where brief poetry and reflective prose deepen one another. His journey made regional places resonate through classical memory, Zen-inflected attention and emotional restraint.
Source: Wikipedia
