Bashō Turns a Journey into The Narrow Road to the Deep North

In the late spring of 1689, the poet Matsuo Bashō departed from Edo with his traveling companion Kawai Sora to journey into the northern interior region known as Oku. Travel across late seventeenth-century Japan on foot involved real hazards, yet Bashō pursued a poetic ideal of wandering. He intended to view celebrated landscapes recorded by earlier writers, seeking in part to renew his own artistic practice by visiting places commemorated in verse, especially the locations celebrated by the revered waka poet Saigyō.

The journey took roughly 156 days and covered almost 1,500 miles, with the two companions traveling predominantly on foot. Along their route, they stopped at landmarks including the Tokugawa shrine at Nikkō, the Shirakawa barrier, the islands of Matsushima, Hiraizumi, Sakata, Kisakata, and Etchū. Sora and Bashō eventually parted ways at Yamanaka. At Ōgaki, Bashō met several disciples before continuing on to the Ise Shrine, where the narrative of the expedition draws to an end.