Long ago, the entire province was given orders to put all aged people to death. The story is about a governor, who was scared about health, created a cruel rule to put all aged people to death. And the farmer, who had an old mother carries her to the mountain and tries to find out ways to live with his mother. In the story, The Aged Mother, by Matsuo Basho, the author believes that age never judges if the person is wise or not. The farmer explained about his mom to the governor. After he thought of his words and meditated in silence, he finally said, “‘Shining needs more than strength of youth’” (Basho 2). It means that being successful with wisdom isn’t because of age or youth because the thing the governor needed, rope ashes was presented by the farmer’s mother, not the farmer. Mom is the one that made the rope ashes, so he notices that the farmer’s mom gave him success, so the governor thinks youth isn’t the best to shine. Further along in the story, the governor states the quote he thought: “‘With the crown of snow, there cometh wisdom’” (Basho 2) I think in this sentence, the ‘crown of snow’ means the white hair of his mom. It means, by the elder people, there cometh wisdom. This shows that not only young people are wise, but the older, which is the crown of snow, is also wise. Because they lived longer, they could have more wisdom as his mother did. Overall, no matter the age, anyone can be wise.

Hyperlinks-
Basic Information
About the Characters