This volume contains five travel sketches written, in later life, by Matsuo Basho (1644-94), the greatest of the Japanese haiku poets.
Basho's genius had already given new freedom and energy to the strict haiku form of seventeen syllables, elevating it to a level of miniature perfection. Zen Buddhism was a leading influence in the school of poetry he founded. His journeys through Japan are recorded in linked prose and verse, and the title piece of these sketches is a bid by the poet ta discover a vision of eternity in nature and the ephemeral world about him.
The cover shows a detail of a portrait of Basho, in the Osaka Museum