or Matsuo Bashō orig. Matsuo Munefusa
born 1644, Ueno, Iga province, Japan
died Nov. 28, 1694, Ōsaka
Japanese haiku poet, the greatest practitioner of the form.
Following the Zen philosophy he studied, he attempted to compress the meaning of the world into the simple pattern of his poetry, disclosing hidden hopes in small things and showing the interdependence of all objects. His The Narrow Road to the Deep North (1694), a poetic prose travelogue, is one of the loveliest works of Japanese literature.