Basho Memorial Hall

Born in 1644, Matsuo Basho started writing poetry at a young age and became a famous haiku master in Japan during the Edo period. He elevated the generally lighthearted and humorous comic verse to a formal form of Japanese poetry - haiku, and instilled the artistic conception of Zen in the poems, and thus pushed the haiku to the top, known as the holy haiku of Japan. In the Basho Memorial Hall in Koto Ward, there are many works of Japanese haiku saint Matsuo Basho, as well as many haiku literature materials from the Edo period to the present. Matsuo Basho used to teach for a living. In order to gain more inspiration for poetry, in 1680, he gave up the luxurious life of being a teacher in a big city and the social life in the literary circle, and moved from Nihonbashi to Fukagawa. Later, he lived in a simple and simple house In the house, the seclusion returns to the ordinary and simple life. In 1681, Basho's children gave him a banana tree and planted it in his secluded home. When the banana tree flourished, the simple house where Basho lived was called "Basho Nunnery". In the Basho nunnery of this hackberry tree, Basho wrote famous poems such as "Ancient Pond". Later, when he left Bashoan to travel, he wrote "The Path in the Deep" and so on. Although Basho-an has not survived, you can visit and experience Basho's life, works, and haiku in the memorial hall built on this land.