Lot 380: MATSUO BASHO (1644-1694) Edo period (1615-1868),

MATSUO BASHO (1644-1694) Edo period (1615-1868), circa 1688 Kakejiku (hanging scroll in horizontal format), ink on paper, inscribed with a prose introduction and a poem by Matsuo Basho (see below), signed Basho; with fitted wood tomobako storage box inscribed outside Basho-o hitsu ippuku (Scroll brushed by the venerable Basho), paper cover inscribed Basho-o [...] Katsuragiyama zenbun hokku [...] (Preamble and poem on Mount Katsuragi); the same information repeated on an accompanying document. Overall 100cm x 36.5cm (39 3/8in x 14 3/8in), image 26cm x 30.7cm (10¼in x 12 1/8in). (3).

Published, llustrated and exhibited: Kakimori Bunko (ed.), Basho seitan sanbyakunanajunen kinen Basho: Sanjunenkan no shinshutsu sakuhin o chushin ni (Basho: A Celebration of His 370th Anniversary, Focused on Newly Discovered Works in The Last 30 Years), Hyogo, Kakimori Bunko, 2014, pp.55-56. Written between autumn 1687 and summer 1688, the haiku poet Matsuo Basho’s travel anthology Oi no kobumi (Notes from My Backpack) includes the following celebrated haiku on the deity of Mount Katsuragi: Nao mitashi / hana ni ake yuku / kami no kao The haiku has been translated many times and the great English haiku specialist R. H. Blyth’s version goes as follows: Still, I would fain see / the god’s face / in the dawning cherry blossoms Blyth explains that a necromancer named En no Otsuno once asked the god Hitokotonushi to assist him in building a bridge between Katsuragi and Yoshino, but the god’s face was so hideous that he could only appear at night to help with construction. See, R.H.Blyth, ‘Basho’, in Haiku, Tokyo, Hokuseido, 1951, pp.328-336, accessible at terebess.hu/english/haiku/Blyth-on-Basho.doc.