Does anyone here know anything about the 'tiny altar' alluded to in
Fahey's notes for the Bashovia comp? Does it even exist?

I received this email today from a friend of mine who is travelling
through Japan and has had some success getting to the bottom of this
confusion. I thought it might be of interest to the group -

"I found the Tokyo Folklore Centre and met the owner and his son.
Apparently they dont know anything about any 'alter' that was erected,
and even if its there the map on Bashovia is erroneous. What it shows
(I think) is the TFC and the Basho Hermitage, a museum dedicated to
the life of MATSUO BASHO, just down the road from the TFC. Mr.
Folklore was extremely pleased to see me, said that he liked my style
and that i was the first person to ever ask about Robbie Basho. He has
Robbie's name written in Japanese characters on his pinboard, he took
a photo of me in his house. I'm going back on Wednesday (hopefully)
and he's gonna give me a copy of some article or something, I dont
know whats going on really. Anyway, the e-mail he originally sent me
before I arrived in Japan is below, I took lots of photos and maybe
this mysterious alter will appear on Wednesday, although I did look
all round the area and saw nothing except the usual shrines. Im not
sure if Mr. Folklore is aware of his shop being in the liner notes to
Bashovia, Im sending him the scanned image to confirm that this alter
doesn't exist. Actually his place isnt really a shop, its more of an
office filled with old posters of Dylan, Ginsberg, Reverend Gary Davis
cds, Woody Guthrie pictures et al."

This is the e-mail from 'Mr. Folklore' mentioned above:

"I'm so glad to see this mail.
Our address/ 1-5-15 Chitose Sumida-ku,Tokyo 130-0025.
Subway/ 7-min walk from Morishita Subway Station
on Oedo Line or Shinjuku Line.

I love Robbie Basho. His Ghost is ramblin from west coastto Japan to
India.
Unfortunately ,Tokyo Folklore Center not open from Aug. to Oct.
If you would like to see the past Robbie Basho Memorial paper,go to the
Basho Museum( Fukagawa).

Thank you.

Kiyohide at Tokyo Folklore Center"