These few pages; stories, poems, interpretations and that I have gathered
here started as an effort for me to understand the art of haiku, and the poet
without whom haiku might never have evolved beyond an after-dinner game for
wealthy merchants, samurai and members of the imperial court.
Many others have been involved in that process, but Basho was the poet that
was instrumental in making the hokku into haikai that eventually came to be
called haiku. I'm not going to get into Basho's biography on these pages
except as necessary to make one point or another, there are more than enough
sources on the Web, and in your local library. You'll find several sources by
going to my links page.
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