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- Feature Exhibition Picturing Bashō’s Narrow Road to the Deep North: A Newly Discovered Handscroll by Yosa Buson
General Information
- Exhibition Title
-
Feature Exhibition
Picturing Bashō’s Narrow Road to the Deep North: A Newly Discovered Handscroll by Yosa Buson
- Period
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June 14–July 18, 2022
- Venue
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Heisei Chishinkan Wing (Collection Galleries), Gallery 1F-2
- Closed
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Mondays
*The museum will be open on Monday July 18, 2022.
- Museum Hours
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9:30 a.m.–5:00 p.m. (Entrance Until 4:30 p.m.)
*Evening hours on Fridays and Saturdays have been cancelled.
- Admission
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Adult 700 yen University Student
(ID required)350 yen - Admission fee includes admission to all galleries in the Heisei Chishinkan Wing.
- Admission is free for high school students and other youths age 0 – 17, seniors over 70, visitors with disabilities and one caretaker, and for Campus Members (including faculty). Please show ID.
- Admission for school groups: Admission to the Collection Galleries is free for elementary school, middle school, and high school students on school fieldtrips as well as teachers serving as their guides.
Description of Exhibition
The eighteenth-century artist Yosa Buson (1716–1783) revered the poet Matsuo Bashō (1644–1694) and produced many paintings based on his famous travel diary Narrow Road to the Deep North (Oku no hosomichi), a work of prose and haiku poetry. Among Buson’s homages to Bashō were several versions of illustrated handscrolls that combined the fully transcribed text of Bashō’s work with paintings of various scenes. Until recently, only four examples of these scrolls have been known to survive.
This exhibition introduces a newly discovered fifth version of Buson’s illustrated Narrow Road to the Deep North. This long-lost scroll is the earliest of the five versions and served as the starting point for his later compositions. 320 years after the original publication of Bashō’s masterpiece, this exhibition debuts the newfound scroll alongside related works from the museum’s collection.

Narrow Road to the Deep North (Oku no hosomichi)
By Yosa Buson