We follow the road over the bridge, underneath which runs a fast-flowing mountain river, then through the village of shops, their souvenirs and foodstuffs almost spilling onto the street, and reach the stairs to Ryushaku-ji. We climb and then follow a wide path. There, after various shrines, we find statues of Basho and his companion Sora, visitors to this temple mountain in 1689. Between them stands a stone monument inscribed in kanji, the Oku No Hosomichi poem he later wrote about his ascent here. It is a powerful poem uniting the stillness of the rock with the sound of the cicada (or semi, as it is known in Japan) as each penetrates consciousness itself. We are following his footsteps more than three hundred years later and more than half-a-world away from home, approaching closer his spirit of natural harmony.
