Matsuo Basho (1644–1694) was the pen name of Matsuo Munefusa, the greatest of the Japanese haiku poets. Born near the holy city of Kyoto, he became interested in poetry while still a youth. However, until 1666, he put his literary interests aside while serving a local lord. Munefusa was a member of the samurai, or warrior, class, but after the death of his lord, he gave up that status to pursue a literary career. He moved to Edo (modern-day Tokyo) and worked as a poet and critic. Later, influenced by his study of Zen philosophy, he was drawn to a simple, reclusive life. He moved to the country and adopted the name Basho, from Basho-an, the word for the simple hut in which he lived. Basho's poetry, like Zen philosophy, finds beauty and meaning in the simplest of natural phenomena. Basho views blossoms on a mountainside, an ear of wheat, or the antlers of a deer and sees in each of them an eternal truth. The natural object becomes a symbol of the affinity or interconnectedness of all things.