Masajo Suzuki’s Haiku of Love

by Jennifer Tohill

Masajo Suzuki was an excellent haiku poet from Japan. She wrote many haiku about her love for her true love and the love for a man that she did not love. She sees life as a beautiful gift and to embrace what you have and be strong when you need to be. Through her haiku I see a life enriched by a mixture of emotions through the seasons.

Masajo Suzuki appears to be a very outspoken, independent, sad yet intimate woman. I personally relate to her in a number of ways. I myself came from a love that was very intimate and passionate but was lost to death. Out of loneliness, I then found myself with a man that I didn’t love. The depression and hate I felt was strong and it took years to rebuild myself up from that experience.

Within the Masajo Suzuki’s book, Love Haiku, there are many haiku that show the absolute passion and pain Masajo felt throughout her lifetime. The beauty of Masajo is that she offered a different perception that overcomes these feelings. She offered the perception of hope. Also her haiku always includes a seasonal word. The word is what creates the picture for the reader. Masajo’s haiku can be sad but the season brings a feeling of peace to the haiku. There is always beauty. As a woman in Japanese culture she had to be very careful in her mannerisms and silent about her emotions. I cannot imagine how difficult that would have been. However, Masajo found a way to express herself, and her emotions, through haiku. In comparison, I have found myself doing the same in my attempts to write haiku.

Another interesting aspect I found reading Love Haiku is Masajo telling the world that things are now always as they seem. As I mentioned before as a woman of Japanese culture her emotions were silent. In modern day we always think we have it worse than others because others are smiling. In relation to her haiku many times you hear of a beautiful, strong woman but you also hear of her deep sadness. Most of us would not think a beautiful, strong woman would have anything to be sad about. It is an interesting contrast but at the same time a daily reality. Also she includes many of her own personal experiences that makes the haiku even stronger. A haiku is to create a reader’s response, and the more personal, the stronger the response.

Masajo also does not live in one time. She writes of the past, the present and the future. I feel this strays away from traditional haiku. The change in time reflects on lessons learned and I feel even makes her haiku more relatable.

In the book, Love Haiku: Masajo Suzuki’s Lifetime of Love, there are many haiku to relate to and that I have personally related to and have applied and helped shift my perception on some situations in life.

when I think
I should of never been born—
departing geese

Suzuki, LH,22

To begin, the above haiku talks of extreme sadness. No one should feel like they would be better off dead or of never being born. Rarely does someone bring themselves to that level. It takes a multitude of negative events or one big even to bring you to feeling like that. I feel it could be due to a failed marriage, maybe a miscarriage, or even abuse. Suzuki does not present herself as being the type of woman to brought down by much. The event had to of been traumatic or heart wrenching. The geese in this haiku is where I see hope. In the case of love, the feeling of failure or losing everything that you had just to have what you do not want is torture. If the sadness was due to the loss of a child, that would even be more heart wrenching. In this haiku I do not see Masajo’s strength. However, in contrast there is strength. Too often we all feel we are all on our own little island and no one understands what we are going through. The reason for this is because we do not like to tell other people what is wrong. Or we shut ourselves down to the point of disbelief that any one has ever felt like we have before. The haiku allows the reader to connect. It allows the reader to think, “wow I am not the only one”. Having a connection with another is a strong bond even through words. I read this haiku thinking, “yes I have been there”. We are always told we are not the only one but we never believe anything we do not see. Through this haiku I hear the words and I can see the emotion.

I picture a young woman, wrapped in a kimono. She has black hair, pale face, and tiny feet. She is sitting on a bench by a pond covered in geese. She sighs and tears are rolling down her face. A man comes up to her and puts his arm around her and she nods to acknowledge him. However, internally she wishes he would go away and never return. She wants to be left alone in her sadness. The interesting part is that she finds company in the geese more than she does him. I have been in this position. I have been alone with a man. I was thought of as his wife, so expected to behave like one. For example, as a woman I was expected to do all the cooking, cleaning, etc. and take care of our son. It was not thought highly of for me to work and/or go to school. The reprimand from everyone in his family was horrible and it destroyed me inside. I found myself alone even when I was surrounded by everyone. I knew how they truly felt about me and what I did not want to become. Unfortunately, I never received true freedom until him and his mother passed away. Sad but true.          

Another feeling I received from the haiku was abandonment. Masajo could be feeling very alone in herself. She is sitting by the pond and all the geese, her only company, fly away. After that, she is truly alone, and that brings the pain to a higher level. For example, we may be hurting so bad inside and not say anything but enjoying having someone around without them knowing how much you need them. The moment they leave, you feel empty inside. You feel that they left you intentionally, when in actuality they just left to leave and do something. It is very difficult to keep it all inside when all you want to do is cry and scream.

on the dressing table
the ring removed from my finger—
cherry blossom rain

Suzuki, LH, 22

This haiku brings an emotion of re birth. The cherry blossom rain is the seasonal word for spring. Thoughts of spring bring thoughts of re birth and/or starting over. In the haiku, Masajo, talks of removing a ring from her finger. I read this thinking of a wedding band. However, the way the haiku reads this can be taken as a positive or a negative. A ring being removed can be a sign of relief or surrender. In the case of relief, the marriage could have been an abusive and/or unhappy marriage. However, in the case of Masajo, I believe this is when she lost her first husband, and not to divorce. In her time, it was not looked highly upon to be a single woman. She would need to quickly remarry. The option of being re born or starting over was not probably want she wanted. If she truly loved the man she lost she would not want to start over. I can relate to this haiku very intimately. When my late husband and I divorced it was not due to him it was due to his family and the way he addressed them. At the time of divorce, I remember getting home, packing up my car and driving away with the dog in the front seat. Half way to my new apartment I remember cheering at the top of my lungs out of happiness. Years later though, I did feel regret. The haiku is bittersweet. Anyone who has been divorced or lost a spouse understands how devastating it feels. Even in the case of an abusive marriage that ended up in divorce there is still devastation. There is the after math of being a victim for so long. I can relate to that as well. Either way in the haiku I feel the cherry blossom rain is a symbol of comfort and serenity. Masajo is hurting horribly and it is the beauty and peacefulness of the cherry blossom rain that is again giving her hope. We all need little reminders that bad times will happen but they will pass just like everything else. I feel that is what Masajo is trying to let the reader see or feel when reading her haikus.

I detest the man
yet I long for him—
willow leaves falling

Suzuki, LH, 38

In this haiku, I see Masajo, as a remarried woman who has a love, hate relationship with her new husband. Honestly, we can all say we love our spouses, but there is a time that we may not like them. Masajo shows her being outspoken in this haiku. I cannot see a woman of that time being able to speak poorly of her husband. However, I believe that if Masajo felt the emotion there was no need to hide it, just express it appropriately, through haiku. The word she uses, “detest,” is such a strong word, almost as strong as hate. The contrast is interesting that she would long for someone she detests. Again though we can relate to this as married individuals. We love our spouses, we may fight, but we never want them to leave. In the time of Masajo’s life it sounds like she was set up with a husband that she did not connect with on an emotional or intimate level. The willow leaves falling to me symbolizes she is shedding her old leaves and getting ready to change into something new. I remember when I met my last husband and we were married it was a horrible marriage. All we did was fight and it I detested him, as Masajo says. However, when we separated for good, I did miss him. Yes, the fighting was bad and the marriage needed to end for a multitude of reasons, but we still cared about each other. It was more of a companionship than a marriage.

No one wants to be alone. A lot of times we get into relationships out of loneliness or out of the need for security. Sadly, these feelings lead to a false pre tense of a real relationship. In the case of Masajo, I believe she was put into an arranged marriage. In the time of an arranged marriage, I cannot even manage the emotional pull that would have on someone. To be forced to be physical with someone, share a life with someone that you do not even know, would be terrifying. From those reflections I see Masajo’s strength in this haiku. She did what she had to do to survive and to me that is very admirable, especially for a woman.

washing at night—
all the laundry
is my own

Suzuki, LH, 55

This haiku makes me think of an old woman in the summer time. A woman who all her kids are grown, her husband has passed and all she has to take care of is herself. The way I relate to this haiku is my grandparents. I remember when my grandma died. My grandfather and her had been married almost 50 years. When she died it ruined him. I remember him doing everything by himself and you could just see the sadness in his eyes. He was only taking of himself when he was used to taking care of them both. Again you hear the sadness in the haiku. However, if you look at it from a difference perception you can see a positive response to it as well. The woman doing the laundry may have lost a husband and it is painful and she is trying to move on. On the other hand, the woman may have lost a husband that she never truly loved and is now free from the burden and is enjoying being alone. I do not see any words of hope in this haiku; however the words “is my own” brings out a sense of independence and the independence can be interpreted into hope. Independence for a woman of Masajo’s time was rare but I believe something she appreciated.

love’s arrow
has missed its mark—
autumn wind

Suzuki, LH, 94

I love this haiku. I find this haiku very humorous and sums up a straight 5 years of my life a while back ago. It is not a good feeling to know that everyone is in love but you. It is not a happy feeling. I never thought it was funny then however now I can laugh at it. However, not everyone sees a humor in it. When I divorced my husband I remember thinking I will never fall in love again and I was happy when I said it. However, over the years you hear of friends or family, getting engaged and married you think something is wrong with you. Cupid just keeps missing his mark with me. However, with the pattern of all the other haiku associated with the book I feel the meaning of this haiku was not to be a humorous but it could have been. I think Masajo may have been with her new husband and lacked the love that she mentions in other haikus. She could have been making a joke in the same context mentioned to make light of the situation. I think we all feel this way at one point or another because we compare ourselves to others. Sometimes I think this debilitates us in seeing what we really have and appreciating it.

no escaping it—
I must step on fallen leaves
to take this path

Suzuki, LH, 95

I wanted to end on his haiku for a reason. Through all the haiku throughout the book, Masajo speaks of love, loss, hate, happiness and sadness. However, bottom line, no matter what happens in life, we cannot question the path that we are on. We have to continue through life, good and bad. The best we can do is to think positive and stay strong. I know personally that life is no easy path. However, my triumphs and trials have made me who I am today. When Masajo says “no escaping it — “it makes me thinking of the saying “enjoy life, no one is getting out alive.” This haiku, I believe, really shows how amazing of a woman Masajo was. The path is now always clear, it may be cluttered, however it needs to be walked down. I see that in myself as well. It has taken years for me to learn that no matter what I am going to have to do things I do not want to do, but that is life. In contrast, in my current life, as a woman in modern day American society, I have more freedom and rights then Masajo did. In other words, walking the path for me should be easier than her walk. Masajo was expected to act and carry out her actions as she did due to society guidelines and culture. I know I have choices to make and it is my choice whether or not to take the path and it is up to me how to take the path. Life is all about choices, but when you do not have a choice you learn to embrace not resist. Masajo shows beauty and hope is everywhere you just need to look.

Conclusion

Masajo Suzuki was a very outspoken, independent, sad yet intimate woman. She lived in a time where being silent, conservative and married was the world. However, she did suffer which she released and shared through haiku. Masajo is an inspiration to me. She has shown me that you can say how you feel through haiku and touch so many people at the same time.

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Works Cited

Suzuki, M. (2000). Love Haiku. Decatur, IL; Brooks Books.