Matsuo Bashō

Before setting out, Bashō sold his cottage and moved to Sampū's villa, from which he left Edo.

On the 27th day of the 3rd lunar month (16 May), he left the boat near Senju Ōhashi and parted from those seeing him off with the verse "Spring is leaving; the birds cry, and the eyes of the fish are wet with tears" (translation).

He spent one night at Nikkō and, after worshipping at Tōshōgū, wrote "How holy: green leaves, young leaves, in the light of the sun" (translation).

He stayed 13 nights at Yoze and Kurobane with the brothers Jōhōji Takakatsu and Kanokobata Toyoaki.

He visited the site of the mountain hermitage of the priest Butchō and wrote "Even the woodpecker leaves the hut unbroken: summer trees" (translation).

He visited the Sesshō-seki, the setting of a Noh play, and wrote "The smell of the stone: the summer grass is red, the dew is hot" (translation).

At the Shirakawa Barrier he left Shimotsuke (Tochigi) for the north, writing in the text that on reaching the barrier his mind was finally set on the journey.

He crossed by boat from Shiogama, landed on Oshima and visited Zuigan-ji, but in the Matsushima section of the book he placed Sora's verse rather than one of his own.

He stood at Takadachi, where Yoshitsune and his retainers died, and wrote "Summer grass: all that remains of the warriors' dreams" (translation).

He visited Chūson-ji and wrote of its Golden Hall "Have the May rains left it alone? The Hall of Light" (translation).

He stayed 10 nights with Suzuki Seifū and wrote "Making the coolness my own home, I sit at ease" (translation).

On 13 July, at the suggestion of people in Obanazawa, he visited this temple, which had not been on his route, and wrote "Stillness: the voice of the cicadas sinks into the rocks" (translation).

At the river port of Ōishida he composed linked verse with local poets; his opening verse there, "gathering the May rains, cool is the Mogami River", became "swift is the Mogami River" in the book (translation).

On Mount Haguro he was received by the priest Egaku and lodged at a branch temple in the Southern Valley, writing "Coolness: a faint crescent moon over Mount Haguro" (translation).

With Sora and a yamabushi guide he climbed Gassan and wrote "How many cloud peaks have crumbled away: the mountain of the moon" (translation).

He stayed 9 days in Sakata, taking part in many verse gatherings, and wrote "The Mogami River has poured the hot day into the sea" (translation).

Kisakata was then a bay dotted with islands; he took a boat to Nōin Island and wrote "Kisakata: in the rain, Xi Shi asleep, the silk-tree flowers" (translation).

He arrived on the 15th day of the 7th lunar month (29 August), learned that the poet Kosugi Isshō, whom he had hoped to meet, had died the year before, and at a memorial gathering at Gan'nen-ji wrote "Mound, move too: my weeping voice is the autumn wind" (translation).

He stayed 8 nights at Yamanaka Onsen, and Sora, who had fallen ill, parted from him here and went on ahead.

The book records a night visit to the Kehi shrine, and its grounds are now designated part of the national Place of Scenic Beauty "Landscapes of Oku no Hosomichi".

He ended the five-month journey at Ōgaki and, leaving for Ise, wrote "Like a clam parting from its shell, I leave for Futami: autumn is going" (translation).