In the following essay, Harries traces briefly the course of Basho¯'s literary prowess as the poet worked within and manipulated tradition Japanese literary styles.

Basho¯ is recognized as one of Japan's greatest literary figures. He transformed haiku from a somewhat frivolous pastime into a serious art form and he remains to this day its greatest exponent. He was in addition a seminal critic and teacher. Though he himself produced only a few works of criticism, many of his critical opinions and comments are preserved in the voluminous notes and accounts of his pupils, particularly Mukai Kyorai and Hattori Doho. Such is the importance of his critical percepts and the example of his poetry that no writer of haiku from his time to the present has been able to escape his influence.

In Basho¯'s own day the haiku was regarded not as a...