Matsuo Bashō
1644 – 1694 · 50 years · Edo · Asia
The supreme master of haiku, who raised the form to high art; author of the travel journal The Narrow Road to the Deep North.
Wikipedia (Russian) · Wikipedia (English) · 17th century
Portrait: Public domain · Wikimedia Commons
Contemporaries around the world
Europe
- Louis XIV — King of France, the Sun King, 6 years older
- Isaac Newton — English physicist and mathematician, 1 year older
- Rembrandt — Dutch painter, 38 years older
- Leopold I — emperor under whom Vienna was saved from the Turks and Hungary retaken, 4 years older
- Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz — German philosopher and mathematician, 2 years younger
- William III of Orange — Dutch stadtholder who took power in the Glorious Revolution, 6 years younger
Eastern Europe & Russia
- Peter the Great — first Emperor of Russia, 28 years younger
- Alexis the Most Quiet — tsar of the 1649 Law Code and the church schism, 15 years older
- Vitus Bering — Danish explorer in Russian service, 37 years younger
- Catherine I — first Russian empress, widow of Peter the Great, 40 years younger
- Feodor III — tsar who abolished the precedence system (mestnichestvo), 17 years younger
- Bohdan Khmelnytsky — Hetman of the Zaporozhian Host, 49 years older
Middle East
- Ahmed III — sultan of the 'Tulip Era', 29 years younger
- Ahmed II — sultan who lost the Battle of Slankamen, 1 year older
- Mehmed IV the Hunter — sultan of the Köprülü era and the siege of Vienna, 2 years older
- Suleiman II — sultan who retook Belgrade after 39 years in the 'cage', 2 years older
- Evliya Çelebi — Ottoman traveller, 33 years older
- Mustafa II — sultan who signed the Treaty of Karlowitz, 20 years younger
Africa
- Njinga of Ndongo and Matamba — Queen of Ndongo and Matamba, 61 years older
- Moulay Ismail — Sultan of Morocco, 1 year younger
- Osei Tutu I — founder of the Ashanti Empire, 16 years younger
- Fasilides — Emperor of Ethiopia, 41 years older
- Kimpa Vita — Kongolese prophet, 40 years younger
Asia
- Kangxi Emperor — Qing emperor of China, 10 years younger
- Aurangzeb — Mughal emperor, 26 years older
- Tokugawa Tsunayoshi — the 'Dog Shogun' who outlawed cruelty to animals, 2 years younger
- Shivaji — founder of the Maratha state, 14 years older
- Shah Jahan — Mughal emperor, 52 years older
- Tokugawa Yoshimune — reforming shogun who allowed Western books, 40 years younger
Americas
- Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz — Mexican poet and nun, 4 years younger
Oceania
- Abel Tasman — Dutch navigator, 41 years older
The world in their lifetime
- 1644 Fall of the Ming, rise of the Qing — aged 0, Asia
- 1648 Peace of Westphalia — aged 4, Europe
- 1649 Execution of Charles I of England — aged 5, Europe
- 1654 Pereiaslav Agreement — aged 10, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1662 Last sighting of the dodo — aged 18, Africa
- 1676 Leeuwenhoek sees microbes — aged 32, Europe
- 1682 Accession of Peter the Great — aged 38, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1683 Battle of Vienna — aged 39, Europe
- 1687 Newton's Principia — aged 43, Europe
- 1688–1689 Glorious Revolution — aged 44, Europe