En Route: The Long Road to the Interior

Photo by Jasohill. When the famous poet Matsuo Basho grew dissatisfied with his city life in Edo and tired of the arts scene, he decided to walk northward into the mountains along one of the Edo Five Routes in 1684, certain that he would be murdered by highway bandits along the way. Out of this suicidal journey, however, came a sense of peace for Basho, a renewed vigor for life, and some of the best haiku written in the past millennium.