Basho sells pencils

"Basho, often dubbed the 'father of haiku', is idolised by the Japanese. His works are drummed into every schoolchild, his deft observation of the natural world emulated by millions of haiku enthusiasts.

"A publishing company sought recently to exploit that enthusiasm by creating Enpitsu de Oku no Hosomichi (Tracing the Narrow Road to the Deep North with a Pencil) — a book that has tracing paper between each page so that readers too can copy Basho’s poems as a form of meditation.

"The book has sold nearly a million copies, and the effect on the pencil market has been explosive. Japanese have been flocking to stationery shops, and pencil sales have soared by about 3.5 million a month."

-<a href="http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-2247939,00.htmlAncient poems propelling a modern pencil boom</a> By Leo Lewis <i>The Times</i>