Little information exists about Basho¯'s early life. The son of a low-ranking samurai, Basho¯ is generally believed to have been born in 1644 in the Iga province of Japan. Basho¯ became a page to, and formed a close friendship with, Todo Yoshitada, a young samurai two years his elder. Yoshitada shared Basho¯'s intense interest in haikai, a form of long poem from which haiku derives. Intending to become a samurai himself, Basho¯ acquired the samurai name Munefusa, but he abandoned his training when Yoshitada died unexpectedly in 1666. Scholars believe both grief over his friend's death and apprehension about a new, less amicable master led Basho¯ to abandon his career as a samurai. Some also include an unhappy love affair as a factor that hastened his departure, although others consider this theory a fabrication of Basho¯'s early biographers...