What was the name of Bashō's first published haiku collection?

Matsuo Bashō’s first published haiku collection was The Seashell Game. Published in 1672 under its Japanese title Kai Ōi, the anthology is considered Bashō’s earliest known book and the only book he published in his own name.

The collection presents the results of a haiku contest. It contains 60 haiku by 36 poets, with each poem followed by Bashō’s critical commentary as the contest referee. The title refers to a children’s game in which two seashells were compared side by side; Bashō similarly weighs paired poems against each other.

The Seashell Game is important because it shows Bashō before the solitary, travel-worn image associated with his later poetry. His comments reveal a poet who was witty, technically informed, and attentive to imaginative detail. Bashō was still developing the style that would later make him Japan’s most celebrated haikai master.

Readers sometimes confuse this anthology with The Narrow Road to the Deep North, his famous travel journal, or with later linked-verse collections. Those works are associated with his mature career, while The Seashell Game belongs to his early period and focuses on poetic judgment and competition.