"All who have achieved real excellence in any art possess one thing in common; to obey nature, to be one with nature throughout the four seasons of the year."
--Basho
Sketching from Nature , SHASEI 写生
shajitsu 写実, byoosha 描写
The word "shasei" has not yet been invented at the time of Basho,
but the idea was here. [Shasei was later used by Masaoka Shiki to describe his haiku technique]
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Further Explanation
Matsuo Basho advises his disciples:
Tohō states, "The Master said, 'Learn of the pine from the pine, learn of the bamboo from the bamboo.' In other words, one must become detached from the self."
To do that you must leave behind you all subjective prejudice.
Otherwise you will force your own self onto the object
and can learn nothing from it.
Your poem will well-up of its own accord
when you and the object become one,
when you dive deep enough into the object,
to discover something of its hidden glimmer.
--Gabi Greve
[I think this idea of oneness can be developed even from a biblical perspective. As David said in Psalms, the heavens are telling of the glory of God (a unity of expression and purpose) and later Jesus encourages his disciples to consider the lilies of the field...]
