The Narrow Road to the Deep North and Other Travel Sketches by Matsuo Basho (Book Review)

The Narrow Road to the Deep North and Other Travel Sketches
by Matsuo Basho
Translated by Nobuyuki Yuasa
Published by Penguin Books, 1966
Price: $9.95

Matsuo Basho was a Japanese poet born near Kyoto in 1644 to a minor samurai family. His family wasn't the most well off. His dad earned a living teaching writing to local children. Basho's big break was the fact that he became the companion to Yoshitada, the local lord's son. Consequently, he shared in whatever education Yoshitada received for free, which introduced him to the world of poetry. When Yoshitada died young at the age of 25, Basho kind of lost direction and interest in serving Yoshitada's father and took off for Kyoto where for the next five years he studied Chinese and Japanese literature and calligraphy in a temple. Soon after he began to publish his own poetry in anthologies.

As he matured he studied Zen and tried to gradually do away with material objects in his life. Some of his fans built him a small house by a river where he would meditate and write poetry. He succeeded at getting rid of most of his stuff but in the end he realized that no matter how many material objects he ejected out of his life, he still had one thing left....his "self". He started a series of long journeys across Japan to erase his self, to become one with nature.

When he started these journeys, he didn't plan things out. He would carry a few things with him like a hat, a rain coat, a little food, and that was about it. He would rely on the kindness of Heaven, temples, fans, friends, fellow poets, and sometimes even complete strangers to aid him along on his trips. Along the way he would write poems and memoirs.

This volume contains five travel sketches in all ranging from a few pages to around 50 pages. The translator in his introduction states the order of the travel sketches is reflective of their quality, with the earliest being the most poorly written and the last being the best. I would argue that the REVERSE is true. I thought that each sketch LESSENED in quality. I felt that in his earlier work, Basho was less self conscious and most open. As he wrote more you could tell that he started playing to his audience instead of actually recording his thoughts and emotions. The last sketch to me was the hardest to get through.

Something that greatly disturbed me early on in this book was when Basho sets off on his first road trip. He soon comes upon a 3 year old kid crying by the side of the river in the middle of nowhere, obviously abandoned. Basho suffers a BIT of distress in one paragraph as he wonders why his parents left this kid to die. So does Basho take the kid to a local village or ask him where he lives? NOPE. He gives the kid a little food and says that Heaven has decreed the kid to be there and that "you must raise your voice to heaven, and I must pass on, leaving you behind." It seemed so horrible to me. It's not the only incident that shows his callousness and complete lack of humanity. Towards the end of the book, two concubines ask to accompany him on the road for part of his walk for protection and he refuses them because he has too much to do.

What he did to that child totally refuted and disqualified anything he had to say about life to me. It also lessened his poetry. Here we have a man who claims he wants to lose his "self" but he's so SELF absorbed that he won't take the trouble to help his fellow man when they need him. Do you think the Buddha would have left that child to die? Basho makes a big show of his emotions when he observes the moon or flowers. He cries at the ruins of once mighty temples and castles, lamenting the fleetingness of power and mortality. But he's not aware enough to help the LIVING. He has no motivation to make the world a better place. He shows no kindness. He simply uses the world as a catalyst to crank out poems. And his poems aren't even THAT great. Like I said, the earlier his work, the more interesting and personal it was. His later sketches read like a catalog more than a memoir or diary. Mainly because he lost his ability to empathize because of his fake existence.

This book is worth reading just to get a feel for Renaissance era Japan but Basho's insight and talent dwindled as he aged so just be prepared for the quality of the writing to diminish as you read.

My Grade: B