The Narrow Road to the Deep North: Prologue

The Narrow Road to the Deep North: Prologue - context Summary

Travel Notebook of Northern Japan

The prologue to The Narrow Road to the Deep North frames Basho’s travelogue voice with a single image: a door buried in grass and a promise that a later generation will still mark the Festival of Dolls. It sets a mood of movement, rural abandonment, and continuity across time. Read as an opening note, it orients the reader to journeys through place, memory, and cultural ritual.