: Lesley Chan Downer
: On the Narrow Road to the Deep North Journey into a Lost Japan
: Eland Publishing
: 9781780602394
: 1
: CHF 10.70
:
: Asien
: English
: 304
: Wasserzeichen
: PC/MAC/eReader/Tablet
: ePUB
After eight years working in Japan, immersing herself in its language and literature, Lesley Chan Downer set off in the footsteps of Matsuo Basho, Japan's most cherished poet, to explore the country's remote northern provinces. Basho's pilgrimage to find the landscapes that had inspired the great medieval poets gave birth to Japan's most famous travel book, rich in strange imagery and sometimes comic encounters along the road. In this intriguing cross-threading of journeys, perceptions and exquisite haiku, Lesley creates her own funny, loving and honest portrayal of contemporary Japan. As she walks, she finds at one and the same time a drab, post-industrial landscape of concrete and cables, but also a land still full of the old enchantments. Nights in thatched highland villages and saké-drenched poetry sessions encourage her to see for herself if any of the legendary hermit-priests still survive in the sacred mountains of the north.

This year, the second year of Genroku, I have decided to make a long walking trip to the distant provinces of the far north. Though the hardships of the journey will pile up snowy hairs on my head, I will see with my own eyes remote places of which I have only heard – I cannot even be certain that I will return alive.

It was a fine spring morning when the poet Matsuo Basho set out on this last long journey of his, to the wild north of Japan. The sky was hazy and the moon still faintly vi