Kusa no to mo (Even a Thatched Hut), haiku poem on tanzaku card (replica)

Matsuo Basho

After Genroku 2 (1689)

(Original: privately owned)

kusa no to mo / sumikawaru yo ya / hina no ie

even a thatched hut / may change with a new owner / into a doll’s house*

This was the original version of the first haiku that appears in Basho’s Oku no Hosomichi travel narrative. In the Oku no Hosomichi book, the “ya” particle at the end of the second phrase has been replaced with the more emotionally assertive “zo.”

In preparation for his journey to the Tohoku and Hokuriku regions in 1689, Basho sells his “Basho-an” residence in Edo. After hearing that a man with a wife and daughter will be moving in, and with the Hina no Sekku, or Girls’ Day Festival, approaching, Basho writes this poem which imagines a display of hina dolls adding gaiety to the plain residence in which he formerly dwelled alone.

*translation: Donald Keene