Abstract

Wordsworth and Bashō: Walking Poets was an exhibition of original and facsimile copies of manuscripts by William and Dorothy Wordsworth and Matsuo Bashō. They were shown alongside new work by contemporary UK and Japanese artists who responded to the manuscripts, and what originally inspired them, in ways that were as fresh, creative and radical now as Wordsworth and Bashō were during their lives. Artists in the show include: Ewan Clayton; Ken Cockburn; Alec Finlay; Christine Flint-Sato; Zaffar Kunial (Poet in Residence at the Wordsworth trust, 2014); Eiichi Kono; Manny Ling; Chris McHugh; Nobuya Monta; Inge Panneels; Andrew Richardson; Autumn Richardson; Nao Sakamoto; Minako Shirakura; Richard Skelton; Ayako Tani; Brian Thompson and myself (with two new works based on the journals of Dorothy Wordsworth.

The exhibition (which is showing at Dove Cottage - click here for more information) was organized and curated by myself assisted by Janet Ross for WALK in collaboration with Jeff Cowton (Curator, the Wordsworth Trust) and was accompanied by a significant publication and opened to the public on the 24th May, running until the 2nd November 2014. The publication, which was published in English and Japanese, includes essays by: Professor Emeritus John Elder: Middlebury College, USA; Professor Shoko Azuma: Jumonji University; Tokyo; Dr. Kaz Oishi: University of Tokyo; Professor Ewan Clayton University of Sunderland; Pamela Woof – President of the Wordsworth Trust; Dr. Carol McKay – University of Sunderland and myself. Thanks also to Ayako Tani and Christopher McHugh for their help in liaising with the Japanese museums involved (Kyoto National Museum; Iga City Bashō Memorial Museum; Waseda Library and Kakimori Bunko).