Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
(68) Blind masseur.
Besides priests and doctors there were other learned persons active in Japan. These in-
cluded Confucianists and also those who studied the literature and history of Japan. The
life of the great poet Bashō can well serve as an example of how some Japanese became
removed from the class system, especially if they had some literary or intellectual status.
It is convenient to refer to him as Bashō, even though it is only the name by which he was
known from about 1680 till his death in 1694. His real name was Matsuo Munefusa. Mat-
suo was the name of his family and, as befitted a person
of samurai
descent, he had the
usual array of names used at various times and for various purposes (as well as an unusu-
ally large collection of 15 pen-names which he used at different periods of his life). He
was born in 1644 in the small castle-town of Ueno in the province of Iga, and was taken
