Sumiyoshi Park

This guide to Sumiyoshi Park in Osaka follows one evening in September 1694, when the haiku master Matsuo Basho, too unwell to join a moon-viewing party with his students, bought a small sake measuring cup at a market by the neighboring Sumiyoshi Taisha shrine instead. The next day, still ailing, he showed up anyway and composed an apologetic verse blaming the purchase for his change of heart. The park itself has stood here since 1873, one of Osaka's first public parks, its shaded lanes tracing the old shrine approach.