Bleached bones in a field (detail)

Basho's travel journal 'Bleached bones in a field.' Calligraphy in white gouache and graphite, paper and sumi by Naoaki Sakamoto, for 'Wordsworth and Basho: walking poets', an exhibition at the Kakimori Bunko, Itami, Japan, 2016. We took the Japanese concept of Wabi as our theme so I wrote Basho's text for his journal 'Bleached bones in a field' entirely in pencil. The text of the white writing contains the last six verses from Wordsworth 'Epitaph for a Poet'. From the various sheets Nao sent me I chose those that reflected the nature of Basho’s journey, his staff, the mountain landscape and then, at the point where he realises he has NOT died yet and the mood of the journal changes, I use sheets with curved lines to suggest the snow, the arrival of spring. The final sheet echoes the one at the beginning to mark his arrival back at home.