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51吃瓜网 / History / THE LIVING PAST

Be a frog and jump into Basho’s pond

By Michael Hoffman

Oct 19, 2019

This, explains Daisetsu T. Suzuki (1870-1966) in “Zen and Japanese Culture,” is how Japan’s most famous haiku came to be written:

Matsuo Basho (1644-94), samurai-born but a rootless wanderer most of his life, was a deep student of Zen. One day his Zen master Butcho paid him a visit at “home” — a “broken cottage” by the Sumida River in Edo (present-day Tokyo). “How are you getting on?” the master inquired.

“After the recent rain the moss has grown greener than ever,” replied Basho.

Amid the heat and humidity in Japan, a good night’s sleep is growing increasingly elusive without the heavy use of air conditioning.

Summer has arrived in Japan and so have hot sleepless nights

By Tomoko Otake

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.

Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

For many people, utility poles and power lines have become such a familiar part of Japan’s landscape that they often go unnoticed.

Why Japan’s utility poles won’t be disappearing anytime soon

By Alex K.T. Martin

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