Basho and the paradox of Fuga

—A Study of His Last Haiku —

Abstract

　On the verge of death, Matsuo Basho (1644-1694) professed that his lifelong dedication to literature had been nothing more than an evil obsession hindering the devotion to Buddhism. His last haiku “On a journey, ill, and over fields all withered, dreams go wandering still” (trans. by Harold Henderson) has been interpreted from that point of view, which emphasizes the conflict between the Buddhist moral and his artistic idea of the Fuga.

　A close reading of Basho’s texts, however, shows that there is also a paradox intrinsic to the idea of Fuga itself. Fuga means the attitude of creating pure natural beauty pervading in life, not limited to works of art. As a pure “natural” effect is obtained only as result of high artificial endeavour, and as Fuga is to be taken as a whole way of life, there arises an inconsistency in the concept of Fuga.

　When we interpret Basho’s last haiku from that standpoint, his dilemma turns out to have a close relation with the philosophy of Chuang-tzu, and of modern art, especially objet d’art, whereas the prevalent reading from a Buddhist point of view only has a limited historical scope. My grammatical and linguistic analysis of Basho’s haiku conducted in accordance with the idea outlined here will lead to the rejection of almost all of the present translations of the haiku, including that of Henderson quoted above.