Works

Oku no Hosomichi

Also Known As The Narrow Road to the Deep North · The Narrow Road to the Interior

Citation Formats

General Reference

Literature Atlas. "Oku no Hosomichi." Accessed August 30, 2026. https://literature.interactiveatlas.org/works/oku-no-hosomichi.

APA Style

Literature Atlas. (n.d.). Oku no Hosomichi. Retrieved August 30, 2026, from https://literature.interactiveatlas.org/works/oku-no-hosomichi

BibTeX

@misc{literatureatlas-oku-no-hosomichi,
  author = {Literature Atlas},
  title = {Oku no Hosomichi},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://literature.interactiveatlas.org/works/oku-no-hosomichi},
  note = {Accessed August 30, 2026}
}

A major work of haibun, a hybrid form combining prose and haiku, by the Japanese poet Matsuo Basho, based on a roughly 156-day journey of nearly 1,500 miles Basho took through the northern interior of Japan beginning in the late spring of 1689 to see places described by classical poets and renew his own art.

Facts

Composed, From (Year)

from 1689 1

The text is based on a journey Basho took in the late spring of 1689; he then spent about five years reworking the prose and haiku before the first edition was published posthumously in 1702.

Cross-Tradition Connections