Oku no Hosomichi (????, originally ??????, meaning "Narrow road to/of the interior"), translated alternately as The Narrow Road to the Deep North and The Narrow Road to the Interior, is a major work of haibun by the Japanese poet Matsuo Bash?, considered "one of the major texts of classical Japanese literature."
The text is written in the form of a prose and verse travel diary and was penned as Bash? made an epic and dangerous journey on foot through the Edo Japan of the late 17th century. While the poetic work became seminal of its own account, the poet's travels in the text have since inspired many people to follow in his footsteps and trace his journey for themselves. In one of its most memorable passages, Bash? suggests that "every day is a journey, and the journey itself home." The text was also influenced by the works of Du Fu, who was highly revered by Bash?.
Of Oku no Hosomichi, Kenji Miyazawa once suggested, "It was as if the very soul of Japan had itself written it."
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The text
Opening sentences
Bash?'s introductory sentences are the most quoted of Oku no Hosomichi:
Plot
Oku no Hosomichi was written based on a journey taken by Bash? in the late spring of 1689. He and his traveling companion Kawai Sora (????) departed from Edo (modern-day Tokyo) for the northerly interior region known as Oku, propelled mostly by a desire to see the places about which the old poets wrote in an effort to "renew his own art." Specifically, he was emulating Saigy?, whom Bash? praised as the greatest waka poet; Bash? made a point of visiting all the sites mentioned in Saigy?'s verse. Travel in those days was very dangerous, but Bash? was committed to a kind of poetic ideal of wandering. He traveled for about 156 days altogether, covering almost 1,500 miles (2,400 km), mostly on foot. Of all of Bash?'s works, this is the best known.
This poetic diary is in the form known as haibun, a combination of prose and haiku. It contains many references to Confucius, Saigy?, Du Fu, ancient Chinese poetry, and even The Tale of the Heike. It manages to strike a delicate balance between all the elements to produce a powerful account. It is primarily a travel account, and Bash? vividly relates the unique poetic essence of each stop in his travels. Stops on his journey include the Tokugawa shrine at Nikk?, the Shirakawa barrier, the islands of Matsushima, Hiraizumi, Sakata, Kisakata, and Etch?. He and Sora parted at Yamanaka, but at ?gaki he briefly met up with a few of his other disciples before departing again to the Ise Shrine and closing the account.
After his journey, he spent five years working and reworking the poems and prose of Oku no Hosomichi before publishing it. Based on differences between draft versions of the account, Sora's diary, and the final version, it is clear that Bash? took a number of artistic liberties in the writing. An example of this is that in the Senj?shu ("Selection of Tales") attributed to Saigy?, the narrator is passing through Eguchi when he is driven by a storm to seek shelter in the nearby cottage of a prostitute; this leads to an exchange of poems, after which he spends the night there. Bash? similarly includes in Oku no Hosomichi a tale of him having an exchange with prostitutes staying in the same inn, but Sora mentions nothing.
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Philosophy behind the text
Nobuyuki Yuasa notes that Bash? studied Zen meditation under the guidance of the Priest Buccho, though it is uncertain whether Bash? ever attained enlightenment. The Japanese Zen scholar D. T. Suzuki has described Bash?'s philosophy in writing poetry as one requiring that both "subject and object were entirely annihilated" in meditative experience. Yuasa likewise writes: "Bash? had been casting away his earthly attachments, one by one, in the years preceding the journey, and now he had nothing else to cast away but his own self which was in him as well as around him. He had to cast this self away, for otherwise he was not able to restore his true identity (what he calls the 'everlasting self which is poetry'"). Yuasa notes "The Narrow Road to the Deep North is Bash?'s study in eternity, and in so far as he has succeeded in this attempt, it is also a monument he has set up against the flow of time."
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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