Communitas, Equality, Anti-structure: Reading Buson's Painting and Bashō's Prose Poem, ‘The Broken Hammer’

Among the surviving pieces of poetry, calligraphy and painting attributed to Bashō (1644–1694) and Buson (1716–1784), the two most famous classical Japanese haiku poets, there is an ink drawing and calligraphic scroll known as The Broken Hammer’ (Kine-no Ore). ¹ The text is attributed to Bashō. The scroll, with Buson’s signature and seals, is preserved in the Itsuō Art Museum, Osaka Prefecture. It is dated the sixth month, An’ei 6 (1777).