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On the Narrow Road: A Journey into Lost Japan
Retracing the steps of revered Japanese poet Matsuo Basho's eight-hundred mile journey, the author explores the possibilities of a simpler older way of life still existing in a modernized Japan three hundred years later
280 pages, Hardcover
First published September 21, 2013
39 people are currently reading
466 people want to read
About the author
Lesley Downer
28 books257 followersI write historical fiction set in Japan - women’s untold stories, largely true and based on meticulous and detailed research, though primarily, of course, good yarns. I’ve just finished The Shogun’s Queen, the fourth of The Shogun Quartet, four novels set in the nineteenth century during the tumultuous fifteen years when Japan was convulsed by civil war and transformed from rule by the shoguns into a society that looked to the west.
Preorder: http://bit.ly/TheShogunsQueen
The second, The Last Concubine, was shortlisted for Romantic Novel of the Year 2009 and translated into 30 languages. The other two novels are The Courtesan and the Samurai and The Samurai’s Daughter. My non-fiction on Japan includes Geisha: The Remarkable Truth Behind the Fiction and Madame Sadayakko: The Geisha who Seduced the West. I’m also a journalist and travel writer, give lectures and teach Creative Writing at City University in London.
Preorder: http://bit.ly/TheShogunsQueen
The second, The Last Concubine, was shortlisted for Romantic Novel of the Year 2009 and translated into 30 languages. The other two novels are The Courtesan and the Samurai and The Samurai’s Daughter. My non-fiction on Japan includes Geisha: The Remarkable Truth Behind the Fiction and Madame Sadayakko: The Geisha who Seduced the West. I’m also a journalist and travel writer, give lectures and teach Creative Writing at City University in London.
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Displaying 1 - 28 of 28 reviews
February 16, 2025
Lesley Downer is amazing. A Londoner, her chosen field of expertise is all things Japanese.
And the books she writes! If this one is any indication, they’re wonderfully entertaining. And inexpensive. She’s a Goodreads author, too...
Ever read Shogun?
I think by now Everyone has - or has seen the video.
And what James Clavell did for my own ancient generation back in the seventies, Ms Downer is doing now for the younger folk.
She shows us the doughty and ruggedly individualistic - stemming, naturally, from its insularity - character of Japan.
And she writes fiction about Japan as well - the Age of the Shogun included - that must be pretty darned good, with her innate grasp of what goes into the fixings of a highly individual character.
So she undertook to take on - alone and on foot - this fabled Japanese road into its deep north. Her degree of fitness must be superb, unlike me, a stodgy old-timer.
So what is, exactly, the Narrow Road to the Deep North? If you said it’s a geographical metaphor for the Quest for Meaning, I think you’re right.
And what’s the End of this Narrow Road? Why, obviously, forgetting about ALL our quests!
Seeing into your true nature means seeing there is NO tangible true nature to the Self. We follow the quest to the end in order to forget about our self, because we will finally see all paths to our self have no meaning.
There’s only empty, full, shocking, calming, ordinary, supernatural daily life. We’re stuck here. Take it like it is. Head on and full blast!
But we will all keep going. Until we see this Sphinx’s riddle really is NONE OF OUR BUSINESS. It’s God’s. Period.
You know, my longtime neighbour Mike keeps moving, too... but not metaphorically.
Like Basho did, and as Ms Downer shows us SHE’S done - walking from Tokyo to the Northern Wilds of the island - since he’s retired, Mike has walked phenomenal distances alone EVERY DAY.
He walks enthusiastically and energetically, with the added bonus of his genuinely gregarious affability towards the folks he meets on his journey.
After years of this, of course, he’s developed both the leg musculature of a James Fixx and a deep, lasting annual summer tan. He’s got the energy of THREE of us stay-at-home bookworm introverts!
Just so, Ms Downer keeps the reader’s energy up through every humorous twist and wry turn of that old LITERAL Narrow Road to the North.
It holds you in its spell, as it did for her.
And if you love Basho’s poetry and biography - evinced in HIS book by the same title - you’ll get plenty of that here.
AND plenty of fascinating cultural and historical snapshots of Japan - Ancient... and Modern.
As well as quite a few wryly amusing character studies of the sturdy Japanese folks she meets on her travels!
It’s a very good book indeed, and I’ve given it Four Full Stars.
And you know what else?
The book is imbued throughout with an honest-to-goodness Zen sense of empty-hearted Freedom.
The same freedom Basho must have tasted nearly half a Millenium ago. But...
For you, I know, the Quest continues.
As I guess it will - until that day you get to the ultimate kingdom of the North, and Franz Kafka’s Gatekeeper says to you:
“Give it up!”
And on that day we’ll ALL finally learn Total Humility.
And the books she writes! If this one is any indication, they’re wonderfully entertaining. And inexpensive. She’s a Goodreads author, too...
Ever read Shogun?
I think by now Everyone has - or has seen the video.
And what James Clavell did for my own ancient generation back in the seventies, Ms Downer is doing now for the younger folk.
She shows us the doughty and ruggedly individualistic - stemming, naturally, from its insularity - character of Japan.
And she writes fiction about Japan as well - the Age of the Shogun included - that must be pretty darned good, with her innate grasp of what goes into the fixings of a highly individual character.
So she undertook to take on - alone and on foot - this fabled Japanese road into its deep north. Her degree of fitness must be superb, unlike me, a stodgy old-timer.
So what is, exactly, the Narrow Road to the Deep North? If you said it’s a geographical metaphor for the Quest for Meaning, I think you’re right.
And what’s the End of this Narrow Road? Why, obviously, forgetting about ALL our quests!
Seeing into your true nature means seeing there is NO tangible true nature to the Self. We follow the quest to the end in order to forget about our self, because we will finally see all paths to our self have no meaning.
There’s only empty, full, shocking, calming, ordinary, supernatural daily life. We’re stuck here. Take it like it is. Head on and full blast!
But we will all keep going. Until we see this Sphinx’s riddle really is NONE OF OUR BUSINESS. It’s God’s. Period.
You know, my longtime neighbour Mike keeps moving, too... but not metaphorically.
Like Basho did, and as Ms Downer shows us SHE’S done - walking from Tokyo to the Northern Wilds of the island - since he’s retired, Mike has walked phenomenal distances alone EVERY DAY.
He walks enthusiastically and energetically, with the added bonus of his genuinely gregarious affability towards the folks he meets on his journey.
After years of this, of course, he’s developed both the leg musculature of a James Fixx and a deep, lasting annual summer tan. He’s got the energy of THREE of us stay-at-home bookworm introverts!
Just so, Ms Downer keeps the reader’s energy up through every humorous twist and wry turn of that old LITERAL Narrow Road to the North.
It holds you in its spell, as it did for her.
And if you love Basho’s poetry and biography - evinced in HIS book by the same title - you’ll get plenty of that here.
AND plenty of fascinating cultural and historical snapshots of Japan - Ancient... and Modern.
As well as quite a few wryly amusing character studies of the sturdy Japanese folks she meets on her travels!
It’s a very good book indeed, and I’ve given it Four Full Stars.
And you know what else?
The book is imbued throughout with an honest-to-goodness Zen sense of empty-hearted Freedom.
The same freedom Basho must have tasted nearly half a Millenium ago. But...
For you, I know, the Quest continues.
As I guess it will - until that day you get to the ultimate kingdom of the North, and Franz Kafka’s Gatekeeper says to you:
“Give it up!”
And on that day we’ll ALL finally learn Total Humility.
December 2, 2025
In the 1980s, Downer, from England, but a resident of Japan, decides to walk the road to the north, following Basho's footsteps. Basho's seventeenth century Japan is a very different place from the one Downer visits, and many of the landmarks he mentions are lost. But on her journey, Downer gains insight into the Japan of impoverished farmers and factory-workers, the hidden beauty far from the main roads, and the mindset of the many pilgrims she meets at the famous mountain shrines. It's a clear-eyed study of a country experiencing rapid changes and development, and a snapshot of a moment in time. Though her journey was only forty years ago, it also feels very distant in time. This is a beautifully written book, which includes Downer's own translations of Basho's haiku, and achieves an admirable balance between a study of Downer's experiences, and the history of Basho and other important historical Japanese figures. A very relaxing book to read, but also informative.
October 22, 2018
Reading this mid-1908s retracing of haiku poet Matsuo Basho's journey to the Japanese hinterlands, I found myself wishing its author had a time machine that would whisk her back to the late 17th century Tohoku mountain environs she romanticizes so much in these pages (I wonder how long her glamorization of that past, or she herself, would survive). She seems so enamored of a "lost Japan" and so disparaging of almost everything about the country's more modern incarnations that I found myself quickly tiring of her constant comparisons, particularly since she seemed all too ready to frequently abandon Basho's "narrow road" in order to jump on a bullet train or down a perfectly-chilled Vitamin C drink from a boondocks vending machine. For all her talk about literary inspiration (and to her credit, she is at her best when she is dipping into Basho's sublime poetry or excitedly recounting a local legend about Yoshitsune and his giant servant Benkei), her incessant griping during her journey makes this book, well, a downer. (Sorry, couldn't resist.)
Read Alan Booth's "The Roads to Sata" instead for a deep dive into rural Japan that's on foot the whole way through.
Read Alan Booth's "The Roads to Sata" instead for a deep dive into rural Japan that's on foot the whole way through.
March 4, 2008
British author retraces the footsteps of legendary 17th Century Japanese writer Basho. She does a good job of contrasting the past and present, though the literary/historical references did bog down things slightly at times for me; readers with a background in those areas should find this book a real treat!
September 10, 2015
In travel literature there is a strong tradition of writers following in the footsteps of earlier travelers: to try see what they saw, to in some sense share their experience, perhaps to see what has changed. In On the Narrow Path: Journey to a Lost Japan, Lesley Downer enters this tradition, following the path of the great Japanese poet, Matsuo Basho, who in 1689 set off on a 5-month, 800 mile journey to the “wild north” of Japan and in 1693 published The Narrow Path to the Deep North, a book studied and loved throughout Japan.
Basho’s purpose, Downer says, was poetic: he wanted to visit places that had inspired poets in the past. His journey was also “a pilgrimage to the places associated with Yoshitsune, the greatest and most loved of Japanese heroes.” Traveling nearly 300 years later, Downer’s own aims were to see if the old “wild” north—said to have disappeared—could still be found, and also to get close to Basho himself.
Her journey succeeds on both counts. Downer, a Briton who taught in Japan for five years, had been familiar only with the “civilized south.” But as she travels—on foot, by train, hitchhiking at times—she discovers that the old way of life has not disappeared. As she roams through rural villages, she finds an entirely different world of farmers and rustic ways, where life is slower and less efficient, where people wear smocks and baggy trousers, and where they speak in a heavy dialect she finds it hard to understand. In a small, unprepossessing village that she at first can hardly wait to leave, she finds a scholar and artists making verses together as Basho once did with students and fellow poets, and ends up staying nearly a week.
And unexpectedly, she finds this world more inclusive. It is not just that people welcome her. It’s also that, “All those little social niceties that are embalmed in the language and somehow prevent a foreigner from ever becoming part of the society, simply don’t exist here,” she writes at one point in her journey. “I felt more at home, less foreign, than I ever had anywhere in Japan.”
As Downer makes her way through dense, sometimes eerie, landscapes, she introduces us to Japanese customs, attitudes, ways of seeing, recounts legends about Yoshitsune, and not only finds Basho everywhere but brings him to life on the page: by quoting amply from his book and presenting numerous haiku written by him or by his traveling companion, Sora. The book is slow, but that seemed appropriate for this journey.
By the end, after Downer has reached the Sacred Mountains and has at last seen the yamabushi—the priests—she’d longed to see, I found myself wanting to read Basho’s own book and to learn more about haiku, so that I might better understand his enigmatic and wonderfully evocative poems.
Basho’s purpose, Downer says, was poetic: he wanted to visit places that had inspired poets in the past. His journey was also “a pilgrimage to the places associated with Yoshitsune, the greatest and most loved of Japanese heroes.” Traveling nearly 300 years later, Downer’s own aims were to see if the old “wild” north—said to have disappeared—could still be found, and also to get close to Basho himself.
Her journey succeeds on both counts. Downer, a Briton who taught in Japan for five years, had been familiar only with the “civilized south.” But as she travels—on foot, by train, hitchhiking at times—she discovers that the old way of life has not disappeared. As she roams through rural villages, she finds an entirely different world of farmers and rustic ways, where life is slower and less efficient, where people wear smocks and baggy trousers, and where they speak in a heavy dialect she finds it hard to understand. In a small, unprepossessing village that she at first can hardly wait to leave, she finds a scholar and artists making verses together as Basho once did with students and fellow poets, and ends up staying nearly a week.
And unexpectedly, she finds this world more inclusive. It is not just that people welcome her. It’s also that, “All those little social niceties that are embalmed in the language and somehow prevent a foreigner from ever becoming part of the society, simply don’t exist here,” she writes at one point in her journey. “I felt more at home, less foreign, than I ever had anywhere in Japan.”
As Downer makes her way through dense, sometimes eerie, landscapes, she introduces us to Japanese customs, attitudes, ways of seeing, recounts legends about Yoshitsune, and not only finds Basho everywhere but brings him to life on the page: by quoting amply from his book and presenting numerous haiku written by him or by his traveling companion, Sora. The book is slow, but that seemed appropriate for this journey.
By the end, after Downer has reached the Sacred Mountains and has at last seen the yamabushi—the priests—she’d longed to see, I found myself wanting to read Basho’s own book and to learn more about haiku, so that I might better understand his enigmatic and wonderfully evocative poems.
October 10, 2020
In “On the Narrow Road: Journey into a Lost Japan”, English author Lesley Downer relays her experiences in the 1980s following in the footsteps of the great Japanese poet, Matsuo Basho, on the route he took, some 300 years earlier, for the adventure he described in his famous travel book “The Narrow Road to the Deep North”, published in 1693.
Ms. Downer stated two reasons for retracing Basho’s steps into the “deep north” of Japan: first, she wanted to get away from the less desirable aspects of the modern cities of Japan (“far removed from Tokyo and its foreign enclaves”) and instead hoped to find the “real Japan, the Japan of my imaginings.” The second thing she was after was, as she stated, “something more amorphous and more alive - to get under the skin of this place and thus somehow get closer to Basho himself.” I thought it might be best to organize this review by those two reasons and how they ended up being expressed in the book:
Seeking the “Real” Japan
This desire to find the “real Japan” at first caused me a bit of hesitation, mostly because I’ve read that exact wording in other travel memoirs on Japan. Aren’t all Japanese people “real Japanese”? I wondered if what that really meant was a desire to make modern Japan fit in to the preconceived romanticized version of what westerners might imagine it used to be in ancient times i.e. the “Japan of my imaginings”. But after reading this book, it appeared that what Ms. Downer meant was a desire to see a Japan that hadn’t been completely taken over by modern city life, where the past hadn’t been completely erased or as she put it, “so carefully preserved that there is no life left in it.”
Downer did seem to find some of what she was looking for in this regard; she does meet and connect with a number of people along the way such as when she connected deeply with a rural family after staying with them for a few days, or the group she hiked into the sacred Dewa mountains with or even the less desirable instances like once being mistaken for a prostitute while hitchhiking. These interactions must be amazing memories for her, awesome that if she hadn’t taken the trek in pursuit of Basho, they would have never happened. In one such incident she wrote upon leaving those she had become acquainted with, “That was the trouble with all the leaving - having to say goodbye.” She also seemed to have found a few of the type of unspoilt environments she was looking for like in one instance where she wrote of the area, “...it was so medieval, it wouldn’t have surprised me if two figures dressed in black like priests, which appeared around a corner, scuffing along in their straw sandals down the valley towards the river.”
In some instances though, she appears to have experienced what other foriegn travelers have written about in their travel memoirs of Japan - what could be called foreigner fatigue. She talked about this first more in the abstract saying, “I was getting tired being alone in a country where you are never allowed to forget that you are a foreigner, an outsider.” In another instance, her very presence seemed to anger a man which made her wonder, “Did Japanese only ever see the world through the spectacles of their Japanese-ness? Did books, films, articles about other countries always relate back to Japan? Was there no reason to study foreign ways, foreign customs - even foreign farmers - except to compare them with Japanese ones, to learn from them or criticise them? The answer to all these, I suspected, was yes.” So in seeking the “real Japan”, it seems she found the good (in one instance remembering an encounter with pleasure because they treated her like one of them) and the bad, and I appreciated the frankness with which she wrote.
A random note: at one point, she was talking about coming back into the city after being in the rural north for a while and how different the people were. She wrote, “There were still plenty of bent backs and stumpy bowed legs and wrinkled old monkey faces; but most people were in western clothes…” I thought saying that they had “old monkey faces” was a bit offensive, but she showed the Japanese respect throughout the book so I don’t think it was intentionally derogatory. She does also do a bit of stereotyping at times such as phrases like, “For all her strength and independence of spirit, it seemed she had been left, like every other Japanese woman, ‘holding the baby’.”
All in all, the parts of the book in this vein are some of my favorite parts about the book - somewhat unrelated to Basho and yet all tied together and meaningful in her own experience and adventure and it showed a humanity to the places that Basho visited as they are today.
Seeking to Be Closer to Basho
It is obvious from her writing that Downer had a genuine affection for Basho and a real desire to be where he had been. You could feel her excitement when she would discover a signpost that labeled his actual path and she would take off down it. There was one instance in which she ran off into the night to be along the path, eventually getting lost and coming back. But there was a true youthful adventure in that abandon and I loved it.
With that being said, I was a little disappointed to see that she either took trains or cars for a lot of the trip, as opposed to walking a lot of it like Basho did. Especially in the first half, it felt like she mostly just wanted to quickly get to an area, see a historical monument or place that Basho went to, and then to get back on the train and get to the next spot which felt a little disingenuous to the stated mission of the trip. Later, she does do a lot of walking and cycling, etc. And to be fair, Basho took horses and boats for sections of his trip as well (although a bullet train is another story).
There were times when following Basho’s journey became more of a secondary pursuit such as when she was hitchhiking and she said, “I unfolded my map. In all this talk, I had forgotten to watch out for Iwate or, for that matter, Basho’s ‘small black headland’ or the ‘small island in midstream’, and we had passed them all.” She described how in those moments, she was appreciating the connection more than the mission, which I can understand. The trip can’t be about Basho 100% of the time. But still.
On the other hand, there were other times where she almost deified Basho and other historical figures like him - like the yamabushi (Japanese mountain ascetic hermits) who she was obsessed with seeing in person/meeting one. Like in one instance she wrote, “I wondered how it felt to be the daughter, wife and mother of a yamabushi.” I thought to myself, they might be priests and have historical value and interest, but they’re people after all, aren’t they? I wasn’t sure why there was such a need to see one of them, but who am I to hate on someone else’s positive and harmless desire to see something they’ve been interested in?
There were times though where it did seem to go into romanticization territory. I remember she was looking at a painting of Egaku who “looks like an immensely dignified character, dressed like a bishop.” He was sitting cross-legged in a particular fashion and she said “the very posture in which he must have received Basho and Sora.” I just thought, oh really? Not to be rude, there were just times where the romanization of these historical figures was a bit much. But again, who am I to think negatively about someone else’s interests and how they view things?
Final Thoughts
Overall, I thought this book was a great read. I loved finding out about places and historical figures and stories that I hadn’t been aware of prior to reading it. The book is free from mundane details about which hotel she stayed at or anything like that - there’s a heart and genuineness to it which I appreciated. The story gives a feeling of great adventure multiple times and I enjoyed it. Her writing is done well to where, at times, you really feel like you’re there with her. Side note: she used the phrase “higgledy piggledy” multiple times to mean something all thrown together which was funny.
It’s a good book and if you’re interested in travel memoirs and/or Japan you’ll really like it.
Ms. Downer stated two reasons for retracing Basho’s steps into the “deep north” of Japan: first, she wanted to get away from the less desirable aspects of the modern cities of Japan (“far removed from Tokyo and its foreign enclaves”) and instead hoped to find the “real Japan, the Japan of my imaginings.” The second thing she was after was, as she stated, “something more amorphous and more alive - to get under the skin of this place and thus somehow get closer to Basho himself.” I thought it might be best to organize this review by those two reasons and how they ended up being expressed in the book:
Seeking the “Real” Japan
This desire to find the “real Japan” at first caused me a bit of hesitation, mostly because I’ve read that exact wording in other travel memoirs on Japan. Aren’t all Japanese people “real Japanese”? I wondered if what that really meant was a desire to make modern Japan fit in to the preconceived romanticized version of what westerners might imagine it used to be in ancient times i.e. the “Japan of my imaginings”. But after reading this book, it appeared that what Ms. Downer meant was a desire to see a Japan that hadn’t been completely taken over by modern city life, where the past hadn’t been completely erased or as she put it, “so carefully preserved that there is no life left in it.”
Downer did seem to find some of what she was looking for in this regard; she does meet and connect with a number of people along the way such as when she connected deeply with a rural family after staying with them for a few days, or the group she hiked into the sacred Dewa mountains with or even the less desirable instances like once being mistaken for a prostitute while hitchhiking. These interactions must be amazing memories for her, awesome that if she hadn’t taken the trek in pursuit of Basho, they would have never happened. In one such incident she wrote upon leaving those she had become acquainted with, “That was the trouble with all the leaving - having to say goodbye.” She also seemed to have found a few of the type of unspoilt environments she was looking for like in one instance where she wrote of the area, “...it was so medieval, it wouldn’t have surprised me if two figures dressed in black like priests, which appeared around a corner, scuffing along in their straw sandals down the valley towards the river.”
In some instances though, she appears to have experienced what other foriegn travelers have written about in their travel memoirs of Japan - what could be called foreigner fatigue. She talked about this first more in the abstract saying, “I was getting tired being alone in a country where you are never allowed to forget that you are a foreigner, an outsider.” In another instance, her very presence seemed to anger a man which made her wonder, “Did Japanese only ever see the world through the spectacles of their Japanese-ness? Did books, films, articles about other countries always relate back to Japan? Was there no reason to study foreign ways, foreign customs - even foreign farmers - except to compare them with Japanese ones, to learn from them or criticise them? The answer to all these, I suspected, was yes.” So in seeking the “real Japan”, it seems she found the good (in one instance remembering an encounter with pleasure because they treated her like one of them) and the bad, and I appreciated the frankness with which she wrote.
A random note: at one point, she was talking about coming back into the city after being in the rural north for a while and how different the people were. She wrote, “There were still plenty of bent backs and stumpy bowed legs and wrinkled old monkey faces; but most people were in western clothes…” I thought saying that they had “old monkey faces” was a bit offensive, but she showed the Japanese respect throughout the book so I don’t think it was intentionally derogatory. She does also do a bit of stereotyping at times such as phrases like, “For all her strength and independence of spirit, it seemed she had been left, like every other Japanese woman, ‘holding the baby’.”
All in all, the parts of the book in this vein are some of my favorite parts about the book - somewhat unrelated to Basho and yet all tied together and meaningful in her own experience and adventure and it showed a humanity to the places that Basho visited as they are today.
Seeking to Be Closer to Basho
It is obvious from her writing that Downer had a genuine affection for Basho and a real desire to be where he had been. You could feel her excitement when she would discover a signpost that labeled his actual path and she would take off down it. There was one instance in which she ran off into the night to be along the path, eventually getting lost and coming back. But there was a true youthful adventure in that abandon and I loved it.
With that being said, I was a little disappointed to see that she either took trains or cars for a lot of the trip, as opposed to walking a lot of it like Basho did. Especially in the first half, it felt like she mostly just wanted to quickly get to an area, see a historical monument or place that Basho went to, and then to get back on the train and get to the next spot which felt a little disingenuous to the stated mission of the trip. Later, she does do a lot of walking and cycling, etc. And to be fair, Basho took horses and boats for sections of his trip as well (although a bullet train is another story).
There were times when following Basho’s journey became more of a secondary pursuit such as when she was hitchhiking and she said, “I unfolded my map. In all this talk, I had forgotten to watch out for Iwate or, for that matter, Basho’s ‘small black headland’ or the ‘small island in midstream’, and we had passed them all.” She described how in those moments, she was appreciating the connection more than the mission, which I can understand. The trip can’t be about Basho 100% of the time. But still.
On the other hand, there were other times where she almost deified Basho and other historical figures like him - like the yamabushi (Japanese mountain ascetic hermits) who she was obsessed with seeing in person/meeting one. Like in one instance she wrote, “I wondered how it felt to be the daughter, wife and mother of a yamabushi.” I thought to myself, they might be priests and have historical value and interest, but they’re people after all, aren’t they? I wasn’t sure why there was such a need to see one of them, but who am I to hate on someone else’s positive and harmless desire to see something they’ve been interested in?
There were times though where it did seem to go into romanticization territory. I remember she was looking at a painting of Egaku who “looks like an immensely dignified character, dressed like a bishop.” He was sitting cross-legged in a particular fashion and she said “the very posture in which he must have received Basho and Sora.” I just thought, oh really? Not to be rude, there were just times where the romanization of these historical figures was a bit much. But again, who am I to think negatively about someone else’s interests and how they view things?
Final Thoughts
Overall, I thought this book was a great read. I loved finding out about places and historical figures and stories that I hadn’t been aware of prior to reading it. The book is free from mundane details about which hotel she stayed at or anything like that - there’s a heart and genuineness to it which I appreciated. The story gives a feeling of great adventure multiple times and I enjoyed it. Her writing is done well to where, at times, you really feel like you’re there with her. Side note: she used the phrase “higgledy piggledy” multiple times to mean something all thrown together which was funny.
It’s a good book and if you’re interested in travel memoirs and/or Japan you’ll really like it.
October 31, 2010
Lesley Downer in 1985 followed in the tracts of Japan's great Haiku poet Basho into rural northern Japan using Basho's great work The Narrow Road to the Deep North as her guide.
I have read and heard a lot about urban Japan and studied quite a bit of Japanese history, but this is the first book that really probes rural backwater Japan and shows what a fundamentally different culture exists there.
Her integration of his travels with her journey, her use of Basho's haikus are appropriate moments, and the simplicity of her travel writing really appealed to me.
I have read and heard a lot about urban Japan and studied quite a bit of Japanese history, but this is the first book that really probes rural backwater Japan and shows what a fundamentally different culture exists there.
Her integration of his travels with her journey, her use of Basho's haikus are appropriate moments, and the simplicity of her travel writing really appealed to me.
September 15, 2016
I got Lesley Downer's book, On The Narrow Road To The Deep North: Journey Into A Lost Japan (1989) as background reading for a trip to the Tohoku region (this time Sendai and surrounding areas-Yamadera and Matsushima). I also read Matsuo Basho's book The Narrow Roads to the Deep North and Other Travel Sketches knowing that Downer would refer to them in her travels. And I am glad that I did, she relied on that book and the diaries of his companion Kawai Sora's diary in which he noted the weather, price of accommodations and other mundane facts of the journey-I learned that Basho only highlighted the more memorable stops and occasions embroidered with poetry. Her journey was undertaken in 1985, so it was rare for foreigners to be undertaking the journey she did, however, unlike Alan Booth who walked all of Japan and wrote about it, she walked, hitchhiked, and took trains to complete the journey and hers was following the route of Japan's most famous poet. And perhaps this trip inspired Booth's later travels in which he followed Osamu Dazai's travels in Tsurugu, Saigo Takamori's retreat, and the searched for the final home of the defeated Heike clan. Downer's book is rich in detail about her encounters with local people and the history of the region in regards to the famous and historical figures who spent time in this region. Unlike Booth's book, she is less forthcoming about herself-sometimes she gets exasperated with people she meets, but she is less humorous and forthcoming about her travels. I understand that she was looking for the world that Basho encountered, but I still don't have a strong feeling of what it was about the journey that inspired her. Unlike Booth, who has a great love for Tohoku, where he initially lived when he came to Japan, Downer had lived further south in the mountains of Gifu, before returning to Japan. That being said I enjoyed having Downer around as I visited some of the places (Yamadera, Sendai, and Matsushima) that she did retracing Basho's footsteps. I intend on coming back and seeing more of Tohoku and I might even re-visit this book when I do.
January 16, 2017
I bought this book in 1990 when I was living in Thailand; those were the fabled days when the value of property in Tokyo was in theory worth more than the entire US, of gold flakes on sushi, of walking into a small yakitori bar on the Ginza and being told by the hostess on the door 'You can't afford to come in here' (she was right). At the time, I thought this was an elegy for a Japan that was vanishing; I spent a few months in Tokyo and Kyoto in 1984 and it already felt different when I came back on business trips in the early 90s.
The purpose of Basho's original journey in 1689 was his own attempt to 'stop the flow of time' by following in the steps of the poet Saigyo, his 12th century predecessor. Reading the book again 25 years later, the echoes of Basho's journey that Lesley Downer discovered as she retraced that journey in the late 80s now appear less remarkable and more a simple confirmation. For me, it is a book that has aged well because of that.
The purpose of Basho's original journey in 1689 was his own attempt to 'stop the flow of time' by following in the steps of the poet Saigyo, his 12th century predecessor. Reading the book again 25 years later, the echoes of Basho's journey that Lesley Downer discovered as she retraced that journey in the late 80s now appear less remarkable and more a simple confirmation. For me, it is a book that has aged well because of that.
February 2, 2013
Informative about Japan today (or say in the 1980's when she wrote this) vs the Japan of Basho (17cent) vs 12th Cent Japan (with which Basho compared his observations). A pleasant read, but often too slow ... not sure why. Some ingredient seems to be missing ... not sure what.
January 1, 2014
Lesley Downer follows in the footsteps of the famous poet Basho -- and in her travels through the north country explores his journey from centuries before and her own journeys in a rapidly disappearing rural Japan of the late 20th Century.
August 3, 2011
Another interesting travelogue, especially if you have an interest in Basho.
May 10, 2013
Good, though it would be better if the author focused on Basho and how her journey connects to his, and less talking about her feelings about some guy she ran into.
April 9, 2014
The always erudite Lesley Downer has written an excellent account of her experiences following the path of Basho on his journey to the temples in northern Japan.
July 31, 2025
Matsuo Basho was a 17th-century Japanese poet, widely regarded as the master of haiku. In 1689, he embarked on a long journey from Edo (modern-day Tokyo) into the remote northern regions of Japan. This journey became the basis for his famous travelogue, The Narrow Road to the Deep North and Other Travel Sketches, which blends poetry, observation, and reflection on nature and life. Basho traveled on foot, accompanied by his friend Sora, seeking inspiration in the landscapes and the people they met along the way. His writing captures the beauty and impermanence of life, a central theme in his work.
Three hundred years later, Lesley Chan Downer decided to retrace Basho’s journey through modern Japan. Having spent five years in Japan working as an English teacher, she was fascinated by Basho’s legacy and wanted to see how much of his world still existed. This book documents her travels, comparing her experiences with Basho’s. Downer’s journey was not just a physical one but also an exploration of Japan’s cultural and historical changes over the centuries. As she got closer to the remote North-East region of Tohoku, in the main Japanese island of Honshu, she dreamed about meeting the yamabushi, reclusive Japanese hermits of ancient lore.
Downer begins her trip in Tokyo, where Basho started his own journey. She notes how the bustling metropolis contrasts sharply with the quiet, rural Edo of Basho’s time. Yet, she finds small traces of the past—shrines, temples, and old streets that still echo the Japan Basho knew. Her writing captures the tension between modernity and tradition, a recurring theme throughout her travels.
As she moved north, Downer followed Basho’s route through mountains, forests, and coastal towns. She described the natural beauty of these places, much as Basho did, but also acknowledged the impact of modernization. Roads, railways, and tourist developments had altered the landscape, yet some areas remained surprisingly unchanged. She visited the same temples and landmarks Basho wrote about, often finding his words still relevant.
One of the most engaging aspects of Downer’s book is her encounters with locals. Like Basho, she met people who share stories, offer hospitality, and help her understand the region’s history. Some were aware of Basho’s journey and took pride in their connection to it. Others were indifferent, highlighting how time had shifted perspectives. These interactions add depth to her narrative.
The book does not shy away from the less romantic aspects of travel. Downer describes fatigue, bad weather, and moments of loneliness. Yet, like Basho, she finds meaning in the journey itself rather than just the destination. Her writing is honest and relatable, making her experiences feel genuine rather than idealized.
One of the highlights of her trip was visiting places deeply connected to Basho’s poetry, such as the the ruins of Hiraizumi. In these spots, she felt a strong connection to the past, as if walking in Basho’s footsteps. By the end of her journey, Downer came to appreciate Basho’s philosophy of travel still exists. Her book is both a tribute to Basho and a personal exploration of Japan’s enduring spirit.
My copy of On the Narrow Road to the Deep North is a recent 2024 edition made by the stoic Eland publishing house. It's great to see that after forty year since it was originally published, Eland has lent a new lease of life to Downer's story. Overall, this book is a thoughtful and engaging travelogue that will appeal to fans of Japanese culture, history, and literature. The narrative is littered with haikus throughout, that help to capture the essence of what Downer's may have felt at every step of the jouney.
Three hundred years later, Lesley Chan Downer decided to retrace Basho’s journey through modern Japan. Having spent five years in Japan working as an English teacher, she was fascinated by Basho’s legacy and wanted to see how much of his world still existed. This book documents her travels, comparing her experiences with Basho’s. Downer’s journey was not just a physical one but also an exploration of Japan’s cultural and historical changes over the centuries. As she got closer to the remote North-East region of Tohoku, in the main Japanese island of Honshu, she dreamed about meeting the yamabushi, reclusive Japanese hermits of ancient lore.
Downer begins her trip in Tokyo, where Basho started his own journey. She notes how the bustling metropolis contrasts sharply with the quiet, rural Edo of Basho’s time. Yet, she finds small traces of the past—shrines, temples, and old streets that still echo the Japan Basho knew. Her writing captures the tension between modernity and tradition, a recurring theme throughout her travels.
As she moved north, Downer followed Basho’s route through mountains, forests, and coastal towns. She described the natural beauty of these places, much as Basho did, but also acknowledged the impact of modernization. Roads, railways, and tourist developments had altered the landscape, yet some areas remained surprisingly unchanged. She visited the same temples and landmarks Basho wrote about, often finding his words still relevant.
One of the most engaging aspects of Downer’s book is her encounters with locals. Like Basho, she met people who share stories, offer hospitality, and help her understand the region’s history. Some were aware of Basho’s journey and took pride in their connection to it. Others were indifferent, highlighting how time had shifted perspectives. These interactions add depth to her narrative.
The book does not shy away from the less romantic aspects of travel. Downer describes fatigue, bad weather, and moments of loneliness. Yet, like Basho, she finds meaning in the journey itself rather than just the destination. Her writing is honest and relatable, making her experiences feel genuine rather than idealized.
One of the highlights of her trip was visiting places deeply connected to Basho’s poetry, such as the the ruins of Hiraizumi. In these spots, she felt a strong connection to the past, as if walking in Basho’s footsteps. By the end of her journey, Downer came to appreciate Basho’s philosophy of travel still exists. Her book is both a tribute to Basho and a personal exploration of Japan’s enduring spirit.
My copy of On the Narrow Road to the Deep North is a recent 2024 edition made by the stoic Eland publishing house. It's great to see that after forty year since it was originally published, Eland has lent a new lease of life to Downer's story. Overall, this book is a thoughtful and engaging travelogue that will appeal to fans of Japanese culture, history, and literature. The narrative is littered with haikus throughout, that help to capture the essence of what Downer's may have felt at every step of the jouney.
July 30, 2025
Along with many others, I've always been fascinated by Japanese culture; it remains a country that can seem mysterious to many, even though its influence pervades all of our lives. So, when On the Narrow Road to the Deep North: Journey into a Lost Japan by Lesley Chan Downer crossed my path, I jumped at the chance to read it and explore the hidden depths of this enigmatic and beautiful culture.
After a number of years living and working in Japan, Leslie Chan Downer, whose lifelong fascination with the country, took the chance to follow in the footsteps of Japan's famous poet, Matsuo Basho, who over 300 years ago set off on a pilgrimage to explore some of the country's remote northern provinces and creating one of Japans most (arguably) famous travel books The Narrow Road to the Deep North.
Setting off from Tokyo and taking the audacious approach of actually walking, using public transport and hitchhiking, Downer takes us step by step through a rural landscape, changed by post-industrialisation, yet holding on to traditions passed down which have brought the small communities together for centuries. One of the main aspects of what I found so engrossing in On the Narrow Road to the Deep North was this sense of community within the more remote areas of Japan, welcoming the author in, wanting to learn more and welcoming her into their homes, hearts and communities. It imbues a sense of sharing that is so common to suppose as a thing of times past, but remains a thriving part of small communities and, for me, became the more intriguing and surprising part of the book over the actual pilgrimage.
However, the focus of the book always remains on Basho's pilgrimage, and I did sympathise with the author's efforts to meet the Yamabushi hermits, and I can only imagine when realisation struck when they were certainly not as expected as time moved on. However, in all of Downer's travels through Japan, On the Narrow Road to the Deep North: Journey into a Lost Japan remains a comfort to many an urban dweller.
In On the Narrow Road to the Deep North: Journey into a Lost Japan, the reader is not only taken on a pilgrimage following Basho's footsteps, but we also share his Haiku to paint the cerebral landscape in which he walked. In walking in the master poet's great footsteps, Lesley Chan Downer has become the perfect guide.
After a number of years living and working in Japan, Leslie Chan Downer, whose lifelong fascination with the country, took the chance to follow in the footsteps of Japan's famous poet, Matsuo Basho, who over 300 years ago set off on a pilgrimage to explore some of the country's remote northern provinces and creating one of Japans most (arguably) famous travel books The Narrow Road to the Deep North.
Setting off from Tokyo and taking the audacious approach of actually walking, using public transport and hitchhiking, Downer takes us step by step through a rural landscape, changed by post-industrialisation, yet holding on to traditions passed down which have brought the small communities together for centuries. One of the main aspects of what I found so engrossing in On the Narrow Road to the Deep North was this sense of community within the more remote areas of Japan, welcoming the author in, wanting to learn more and welcoming her into their homes, hearts and communities. It imbues a sense of sharing that is so common to suppose as a thing of times past, but remains a thriving part of small communities and, for me, became the more intriguing and surprising part of the book over the actual pilgrimage.
However, the focus of the book always remains on Basho's pilgrimage, and I did sympathise with the author's efforts to meet the Yamabushi hermits, and I can only imagine when realisation struck when they were certainly not as expected as time moved on. However, in all of Downer's travels through Japan, On the Narrow Road to the Deep North: Journey into a Lost Japan remains a comfort to many an urban dweller.
In On the Narrow Road to the Deep North: Journey into a Lost Japan, the reader is not only taken on a pilgrimage following Basho's footsteps, but we also share his Haiku to paint the cerebral landscape in which he walked. In walking in the master poet's great footsteps, Lesley Chan Downer has become the perfect guide.
August 13, 2024
Lesley Downer: On the Narrow Road: Journey: Into a Lost Japan.
On the Narrow Road to the Deep North is Lesley’s first book, a travelogue that reveals small town and rural Japan in the late 1980s, a place that’s a world away from the Japan of popular thought. At the time that Lesley traveled in Basho’s footsteps, it was rare for non-Japanese to venture beyond Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto, Kobe. It was still rare for non-Japanese to travel to Japan as tourists. Tourism to Japan only properly began when Tokyo hosted the Olympics in 1964, and Osaka was the location for the World Expo of 1970. In the 1980s, Japan had become this cool place to dream of visiting. Pop stars went there, Ridley Scott modeled his Future LA on Tokyo in Blade Runner, and fashion designers Kenzo Takada, Issey Miyake, Yoji Yamamoto and the collective Comme des Garçons challenged Western fashion in exciting ways.
Retracing the footsteps of 17th-century wandering poet Basho, whose The Narrow Road to the Deep North is a classic, Downer set out to discover a traditional, postindustrial Japan hidden beneath that country's modernized exterior. A Londoner who spends three months of every year in rural Japan, she meticulously records her impressions of provincial villages where native gods are still worshiped, and where many people had never met a foreigner before. She visited Shinto shrines, wrote haiku in Japanese, sojourned by sacred mountains and along Japan's coast, constantly comparing her own experiences with those of Basho in a way that often intrudes on the narrative flow. There is little left of the past in modern Japan, according to Downer, and this self-conscious attempt to draw close to Basho in spirit, though at times monotonous, will be read with interest by students of Japanese culture.
On the Narrow Road to the Deep North is Lesley’s first book, a travelogue that reveals small town and rural Japan in the late 1980s, a place that’s a world away from the Japan of popular thought. At the time that Lesley traveled in Basho’s footsteps, it was rare for non-Japanese to venture beyond Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto, Kobe. It was still rare for non-Japanese to travel to Japan as tourists. Tourism to Japan only properly began when Tokyo hosted the Olympics in 1964, and Osaka was the location for the World Expo of 1970. In the 1980s, Japan had become this cool place to dream of visiting. Pop stars went there, Ridley Scott modeled his Future LA on Tokyo in Blade Runner, and fashion designers Kenzo Takada, Issey Miyake, Yoji Yamamoto and the collective Comme des Garçons challenged Western fashion in exciting ways.
Retracing the footsteps of 17th-century wandering poet Basho, whose The Narrow Road to the Deep North is a classic, Downer set out to discover a traditional, postindustrial Japan hidden beneath that country's modernized exterior. A Londoner who spends three months of every year in rural Japan, she meticulously records her impressions of provincial villages where native gods are still worshiped, and where many people had never met a foreigner before. She visited Shinto shrines, wrote haiku in Japanese, sojourned by sacred mountains and along Japan's coast, constantly comparing her own experiences with those of Basho in a way that often intrudes on the narrative flow. There is little left of the past in modern Japan, according to Downer, and this self-conscious attempt to draw close to Basho in spirit, though at times monotonous, will be read with interest by students of Japanese culture.
June 10, 2020
I loved this book. What I liked most was the author’s description of the people she met along her journey. Everywhere she went she was met with people who took for granted the responsibility to help a stranger and find her shelter for a night or two or three. I also loved the authors total ability to approach each offer of hospitality with humor and gratitude. She threw herself into each situation and, so it seemed to me, was accepted. She was positively intrepid. I can’t imagine myself taking off on small country roads that lead to even more remote areas. But that’s exactly what Downer did for months. What I also liked was the authors humility. This book was written in 1989. Books written today in this genre of adventure, focus much more on the ego of the author. “I Crossed Antartica Alone. Aren’t I Amazing. I think I’ll write a whole book about how awesome I am.” Downer writes a much different book. It was refreshing and enriching.
April 11, 2019
I wouldn't mind Downer's negativity if it had occasionally been punctuated by some enjoyment or regard for the places she visited. But the dearth of positivity here had me questioning why she stuck with the journey. She also quotes Basho at length but really didn't relate her interpretations of or relationship with the poet.
September 5, 2020
Excellent guide to basho and old and new Japan
Very entertaining and moving guide to Basho and to both an old and vanishing Japan as well as the new Japan. The old wins easily! I learnt a lot about basho and poetry , people and places
Very entertaining and moving guide to Basho and to both an old and vanishing Japan as well as the new Japan. The old wins easily! I learnt a lot about basho and poetry , people and places
April 22, 2023
A dense, rich memoir wafting—dreamlike—between the journey of semi-legends, semi-historical figures Yoshitsune and Benkei; Basho the famous haiku poet; and “present day” (early 1980s) author on both their trails.
August 20, 2018
The conceit of following Basho's footsteps soon becomes wearisome. Nicely written, though.
April 3, 2019
Kono hon wa totemo omoshirokatta desu.
February 13, 2021
Brit author Lesley Downer takes to the road in Japan, following the path of classic haiku poet Basho along the narrow road to the deep north.
February 27, 2023
A favorite that I re-read and somehow never have reviewed. Captivating from the first lines and full of memorable places and people and a winning dedication to Basho and his poetry.
September 4, 2025
riveting
Very interesting look into such a different world of how people use different ways to survive how they worshipped the gods
Very interesting look into such a different world of how people use different ways to survive how they worshipped the gods
March 4, 2018
Good book for the vacation, easy reading and good background. Read most of it on vacation trip to Wild Atlantic Way in Ireland.
June 18, 2021
Reread. First read 1989
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