Summary
Here is a classic journey of poetic self-discovery, written by Japan's finest writer of haiku poetry. This edition includes a critical introduction to Basho's life and works, sumi-e ink drawings and text presented in both English and Japanese orthography. In the seventeenth century, the pilgrim-poet Basho undertook on foot a difficult and perilous journey to the remote northeastern provinces of Honshu, Japan's main island. Throughout the five-month journey, the master of haiku kept a record of his impressions in a prose-poetry diary later called The Narrow
DOROTHY BRITTON-writer, poet, and composer-is half English and half American, and was born in Japan. Educated in all three countries, she studied composition with Darius Milhaud at Mills College in California. Her suites Yedo Fantasy and Tokyo Impressions were described by the American Record Guide as a highly successful "translation of the koto-samisen aesthetic into Occidental terms." Besides music, she has published poems, essays, articles, and books in both English and Japanese, as well as numerous translations. She is the author of The Japanese Crane and co-author of National Parks of Japan, and more recently she has translated Princess Chichibu's autobiography, The Silver Drum.
SHIRO TSUJIMURA is a ceramic artist and painter working in Mima-cho, in the hills above Nara, Japan. After a short tenure in a Zen temple in his youth, he turned to art, spending the next seven years teaching himself how to throw pots and paint. His work is exhibited regularly throughout Japan, and can be found in private and museum collections in Japan, the United States, and Europe. His pieces have also been shown in New York, London, and Frankfurt.
