basho

the poet and the warrior

Okay, I know what you’re thinking: hold the phone! Haseo likes haikus?? Apparently it's easier to believe than one might think, my stalwart readers. While this does say a lot about Haseo, some of which I've tried to cover in @play, there is also something to be said for the parallels between the two. On the surface, their stories are very different, as are the resolutions. However, each searches for truth and reality in the worlds surrounding them: while Basho's travels do not exactly foreshadow Haseo's journey, he does seek verisimilitude in an increasingly artifical world.

Before I go on, I'd like to make it clear that this page is in no way a substitute for actual academic research regarding Basho or his literary contributions. It’s just a few interesting findings that I felt were worth sharing with other fans of Haseo.

Basho was not born a poet. While still young, Basho, then called Munefusa, entered the service of a young lord named Todo Yoshitada. Yoshitada and Basho both held an interest for haikai poetry; after Yoshitada’s premature death, Basho cast off the role of warrior and set out to devote his life to the art. In 1681, a disciple gave him a wondrous present: a banana tree, or basho. Shortly after he wrote:

Enchanted by the gift, the poet took the name for himself. ² It's interesting to note that Haseo and Basho are both pseudonyms undertaken while the two complete their respective journeys.

Yet an artistic way of life did not quell the doubts that plagued Basho. Makoto Ueda writes:

Apparently Basho was not at peace with himself, despite his increasing fame and well-being. His poems...suggest spiritual ambivalence and experimental disposition.³

Like Haseo, various tragedies and doubts in Basho's life led him to seek out the truth away from his beloved school and banana tree. He made a series of trips, keeping a travel log filled with observations and poetry. His first log, Nozarashi Kiko, while not considered his finest by most, reveals a Basho grappling to find self-actualization and freedom from internal ambiguity. Who does this remind us of?

On this, Ueda says again:

Nevertheless, the journal has a serious theme that runs consistently beneath its surface: a search for liberation from tormenting self-doubts. To attain this aim Basho was willing to risk his fragile constitution; the journal's title suggests his determination... He seems to have been successful in his search. Later sections of the journal show Basho enjoying his life as an itinerant poet; self-doubts are no longer there. Through the journey, he came to know exactly what he wanted.⁴

Haseo: All of this...all of this, all of this! Is nothing more than a bunch of computer data! It's just a bunch of fake stuff made by slapping textures on top of polygons! How the hell do you find any part of this made up world beautiful?

As previously mentioned, the player behind Haseo, Misaki Ryou, originally chose the name "Sora" as a handle. Basho's most famous journey is recounted in his journal The Narrow Road to the Deep North. Sora accompanied Basho on this journey, specifically marking Narrow Road as the source from which Ryou drew his inspiration. Basho undertook this journey that few walked in search of many things: history, forgotten ways of life, and even good old fashioned business. Still, the account itself is written from an almost ethereal angle; his logs become enveloped in gossamer, and at times he even fabricates accounts to lend a poetic telling to the tale.

Conversely, Sora's account is taken to be the more authentic of the two, yet he is the lesser known of the pair, and the humble disciple no less. The Sora of //SIGN is anything but humble, and certainly is an apprentice to no one. However, he was the premature version of Haseo's avatar in The World. At times the antagonist, at others an anti-hero, Sora was not ready to fill the role of "savior of The World" as Haseo was. His sacrifice, while courageous, was not "purely good"; he was not the ultimate hero of the tale, unlike Haseo. Sora's own poetry reflects some of his future counterpart's darkness and ultimate ending:

Likewise, despite a poetic tendency to "go the road alone", Basho was a leader. Known to have tens of thousands of disciples, the poet could inspire countless patrons and students. By Redemption, Haseo also casts off his lone wolf facade and does much the same, going so far as to compel the players of The World to rise against Cubia.

Above all, like Haseo, Basho was known to take the road less traveled. Inspired by their own searches for truth and reality, the two tread the paths that no one else dared.

So while Basho and Haseo are not perfect mirrors of each other, with a little digging one can begin to see a frame that surrounds the two and their journeys. Basho's own doubt-to-truth path provides an insight into the sort of tale Haseo finds worthy of an online handle. It is not a surprise, then, that Haseo would find the strength that Basho possessed and follow his own road to the truth.

Footnotes