Basho Memorial Museum Ogaki

Ogaki is where Oku no Hosomichi ends. Basho arrived here in 1689 after around 2,400 kilometres and five months on the road, met friends, and left by boat down the Suimon river with the closing verse about parting at Futami. The town has been the ending of the most famous travel book in Japanese literature ever since, and calls itself the place of the knot.

The museum on that spot has two halves: the Basho hall, which follows the whole journey with a film and displays, and a free tourist wing. Outside, a spring called Musubi-no-Izumi rises from a well 147 metres deep — Ogaki is built on artesian groundwater and is known as the city of water, with public springs around the streets. Admission to the Basho hall is ¥300 and the site by the old river landing is free to walk.