In each of these series of twelve issues depicting the "Narrow Road to a Far Province" travel diary by Basho Matsuo each pair of stamps illustrates one "haiku" (17-syllable poem) from the diary. The full text of the "haiku" is printed on one stamp and given in calligraphy on the other with appropriate illustrations. Each "haiku" was written at a particular point in the journey (given in brackets in the caption to the second stamp of each pair).
