Wordsworth and Basho: Walking Poets

Matsuo Basho is as famous in Japan as Wordsworth or Shakespeare is in Britain.  Although Basho lived over a century before Wordsworth, the two poets had much in common. 

They both pioneered the use of everyday language in poetry, they both used the natural world to express their ideas, and they both composed their poetry as they walked. Each found creative inspiration in nature, and for each, the act of walking itself was a creative process. 

Seeing their words, whether in Wordsworth’s small notebooks in his cramped handwriting or on Basho’s beautifully produced and illustrated scrolls, tells us much about how they each perceived and wrote about the world around them.

This exhibition features manuscripts and early printed editions of work written by Matsuo Basho, William Wordsworth, and Wordsworth’s sister Dorothy, who is now recognised as a significant writer in her own right. New works by contemporary artists, poets and a composer respond to the manuscripts.

Exhibitors: Ewan Clayton, Ken Cockburn, Mike Collier, Alec Finlay, Christine Flint-Sato, Eiichi Kono, Zaffar Kunial, Manny Ling, Christopher McHugh, Nobuya Monta, Inge Panneels, Andrew Richardson, Autumn Richardson, Nao Sakamoto, Minako Shirakura, Richard Skelton, Ayako Tani, and Brian Thompson.