Contributor

Matsuo Basho

Three haikus. Born into the samurai class in 1644, Basho at the age of nine entered the service of a local lord and soon began writing poems. He went to Edo at the age of twenty-nine to pursue his interest in poetry, becoming a lay monk in 1679, the same year he began composing in the “new style” of haiku that he revolutionized. At his death in 1694, Basho is said to have had around two thousand associates who aligned themselves with his teachings.