Joolie Green's Art Gallery

Summer moon
clapping hands
I herald dawn

charcoal on paper 2006
From the Exhibition The Girl Can’t Help It, Nostimo’s Woollahra

Matsuo Munefusa, alias Bashō (1644-94), was a Japanese poet and writer during the early Edo period. He took his pen name Bashō from his bashō-an, a hut made of plantain leaves, to where he would withdraw from society for solitude. Born of a wealthy family, Bashō was a Samurai until the age of 20, at which time he devoted himself to his poetry. Bashō was a main figure in the development of haiku, and is considered to have written the most perfect examples of the form. His poetry explores the beauties of nature and are influenced by Zen Buddhism, which lends itself to the meditative solitude sensed in his haiku.