The literary genius, Matsuo “Basho” Manefusa, was born in 1644.  He had six siblings in a family of samurai.  At a young age, Matsuo went into the feudal service.  Upon his master’s death, he was left to wander Japan for much of his life afterwards.  He is believed to have studied the classics near Kyoto after traveling for some time.  This is when he became interested in what he’d later master, the haiku.

When he was twenty-nine years old, he wrote some of his first works near the capitol of Japan.  He published a Kai-Oi, a book of some of his first verses.  For four years after this, he tried to make a living building waterworks for the city.  After this, however, friends and family kicked in their support for his poetic genius by helping out with his expenses.  For the next few years, he gained many supporters and admirers.  Through their support, in 1680, he was able to settle down in a Cottage at Fukagawa in Edo.  One of his fans gave him a banana plant, which was planted in Basho's garden. His isolation was called the Hermitage of the Banana Plant (Basho-an).  He had been known by the pen name Tosei, but increasingly began to use the name Basho.

In 1682, his cottage burned down, causing him to move.  He was assumed to have become a Buddhist priest, because he started dressing in a manner of clergy.  He seemed to have widened his vision if the universe.  His cottage was rebuilt in 1683, and Basho was able to return, he, however, went on a trip to his birthplace.  He wrote a travel diary, released and called The Weatherbeaten Trip (Nozarashi Kiko).  That same year, he published Winter Days, a collection of haikus.  He would go on to publish many more works.

In 1690, Basho lived in retirement near lake Biwa and wrote an about his stay. In the 1691 Basho returned to his cottage, near the site of the former one.  It even had another banana plant in the garden.  Basho stayed there discussing poetry for three years.   In the spring of 1694 Basho went on one last trip to his birthplace.  He became sick around Osaka.  He knew he was near the end and thus, Basho wrote a final poem on his own death: 

Stricken while journeying
my dreams still wander about
but on withered fields.

By Gabe and Brock
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