The Nasu plain is a wild region surrounded by mountains where several rivers converge to form the Nasugawa. This has always been an area of harsh weather and sparse population. It was well known as a hunting ground and has been much celebrated in poetry.

This passage recounts their journey from Nikko, through across the Nasu Plain to Kurobane. We know from Sora's diary that as they set out from Nikko, their host Honest Gozaemon advised them to take a shortcut, so when they finally reached Nasu, they were not on the main highway. There is some dispute among scholars about what route they actually followed and whether it was any shorter or not. In any case, we know that the road was bad and Basho gives us a vivid account of travellers lost in a maze of paths and trails, night falls and rain begins to come down. Finally they seek refuge at a farm house. The next morning they are still lost, but the sun is shining, and they ask a grass-cutter for guidance. He is a simple, working man and full of sympathy for their plight. He thinks it would be best to guide the travellers himself, but he needs to tend to his work. Yet he is concerned they will lose their way, so he gives them the use of his horse. Basho is delighted at the thoughtful and novel solution this man has come up with in letting the horse be their guide. There is also, surely, an element of humor in this. Basho, the pilgrim, seeking his way on the journey of life, finds guidance not from some celebrated wise man, or even from a simple farmer, but rather from the farmer's horse who takes him unerringly on the proper path.

When the two children run after the travellers, we can assume that they belong to the farmer. Since Basho refers to one of them as a "little princess," it is conventionally asusmed that the other was a little boy. Gone are the anxiety and hardship of the previous night, and instead we have a delightful and helpful encounter. Basho had met good people at the inn at Nikko and here again on the remote Plain of Nasu, he has another such encounter. These people have none of the worldly sophistication of Edoites, and Basho looks forward to more such encounters as he continues northward.

In Sora's poem, Nadeshiko, the pink, is the season word indicating summer. Although this flower is numbered among the seven grasses of autumn, in haikai it is considered to indicate summer. Since ancient times there have been many examples in literature of children named Nadeshiko; we see it used in The Tale of Genji in the "Broom Tree" chapter. Because this name is one of charm and beauty, Sora did not expect to find it in the rustic countryside, and consequently he took it to mean, "layered," a more commonplace word pronounced the same way. Realizing his mistake, he combined the words to create "yae nadeshiko," the "layered pink." Although there is no such flower as the "layered pink," by using the poem to acknowledge his own mistake and correct it, Sora demonstrates his own sensibility. This notion of finding rude country people more esthetically senitive than expected is a leitmotif throughout this work in particular and Japanese literature in general.

Evidently meeting this little girl named Kasane in such an auspicious way greatly affected Basho for the memory of the encounter stayed with him. He dscribes the meeting in other places besides this diary, and once, when a friend asked him to suggest a name for his newborn daughter, gave Kasane as his recommendation. On another occasion, Basho recalled this episode and told Sora that if he had had a little girl of his own, he would have named her Kasane.

This passage begins with the travellers looking forward to arriving in a distant town where a friend lives. On the way, however, they get lost, rain comes, night falls and they are in a wild and desolate area. The traveller's nightmare becomes their reality. The next day, however, they are helped by a farmer and delighted to meet his children and guided by his horse; it all worked out well.