Two of the most famous Japanese poets and authors of their time, Ki no Tsurayuki and Matsuo Bashou, are still important today for these same achievements. The two men wrote two well-known travel diaries, and although they have the same title of "travel diary", the two are very different. Ki no Tsurayuki wrote "Tosa Nikki", around 936, during the Heian period, and Matsuo Bashou, or simply Bashou, wrote "Oku no Hosomichi", in 1689, during the Edo period. The Heian period seems more traditional while the Edo period marks the opening of modernization in Japan. With just this rating, the differences between the two reviews would seem a little more obvious. Some are indeed simple, but there are some differences that are either difficult to point out or difficult to express in words, especially for a novice like me. The introduction to “Tosa Nikki” contains two sentences: “Newspapers are things written by men, I am told. However, I'm writing one to see what a woman can do. This already tells readers that they will be reading something written in a diary style and that it will be told from a woman's point of view. The author, Ki no Tsurayuki, is indeed a man, and by telling it from another point of view, particularly that of another genre, seems to make it more of a fictional diary. But since the story was written to tell the journey the writer took alongside the governor, who was Ki no Tsurayuki himself, it could still be true, with some slight twists and turns to make it more interesting. And after his very short introduction, he continues the story as what one might consider a typical diary, giving the date, represented by days and moons, and entries of various sizes. Bashou's "Oku no Hosomichi", his entire diary.... .. middle of paper ......riods in his "Oku no Hosomichi". The elegance that reigned in the Heian period has changed, and now poetry can also include a bit of entertaining humor. Bashou's work well represented the combination of the high position of literature and his own simplicity that he had as a monk. For these reasons, I appreciated his work rather than that of “Tosa Nikki”. But the underlying meaning of both is still difficult for me to locate, since I'm still technically new to Japanese literature, so there could be so many other differences that set these two famous authors apart. Works Cited Anthology of Japanese Literature. 'Ed' or 'Comp'. Donald Keene. New York: Grove Press, 1955. Print. Malgorzata, Citko. “Oku no Hosomichi. » n. page. Internet. April 19 2011. .