Kathy McDonald • Kathy's Haiku •

Masajo Suzuki was one of today’s most renowned haiku poets. Her life took her down many different paths; some of those paths were painful and tragic while others were filled with love. Through her haiku, we are given a glimpse into her life and into her soul. We receive the gift of experiencing her life, love and pain as we read her haiku. Masajo was born on November 24, 1906, in Japan, to a family of innkeepers. Masajo’s mother passed away when Masajo was just 5 years old. While according to Susumu Takiguchi’s articles “Portrait of a Poet” and “Requiem for a Poet” World Haiku Review, Masajo’s stepmother was a kind person, such a loss would be devastating for a little girl. Losing her mother would leave a void that couldn’t easily be filled. In 1935, Masajo’s life took another unexpected turn when her oldest sister, Ryu, passed away and Masajo’s first husband went missing presumably due to a large gambling debt that he owed. These two tragedies resulted in Masajo being sent back to her family. She suffered still another loss when the decision was made that her daughter was sent to live with her husband’s family. At some point early on in her first marriage, Masajo had given birth to a stillborn baby. In her first twenty-nine years, Masajo suffered devastating losses, yet she moved forward in her life. We can feel her emotions even in her early haiku and these emotions carry forward into the haiku that she writes all of her life. (Takiguchi, 2003) Masajo fulfilled her family obligation to marry her brother in law and raise her sister’s children, while being separated from her own daughter. Along with her new family, she inherited the family inn and became responsible for running that also. Nearly a year after this massive upheaval in her life, Masajo’s father passed away. She must have felt so alone at this point, with both of her parent’s dead and married to someone she didn’t love. Perhaps this loneliness propelled her into an affair that would last for many years. While their meetings were infrequent and Masajo eventually found out that her lover was married with children, she remained true to her lover. Her lover passed away in 1977 and was buried next to his wife, which Masajo talked about in one of her haiku as being yet another painful experience in her life. (Takiguchi, 2003) Masajo continued to live a life of misfortune and tragedy. The inn she inherited from her family caught fire and was destroyed. With the help of friends, she was able to borrow the money to rebuild the inn and reopen it for business. In 1957, while watching a play that her daughter was performing in when Masajo received a message from her husband demanding that she devote herself to taking care of him or he wanted her to leave. This may have been the first time in her life that she made her own decision and she left her husband. Masajo took only her clothes and her futon when she left the marriage. Her friends came to her aid again, loaning her the money to open her restaurant “Unami”. In a traditional culture such as Japan, being a 50 year old, twice divorced, female restaurateur must have been shocking to some, yet on some level we feel a sense of independence on her part. (Takiguchi, 2003) With all of the upheaval and loss in her life, there was no way her sadness and loneliness couldn’t help but come through in her poetry. There are times in a person’s life when they function and survive the best that they can with what they have and this is reflected in her work. Instead, I see a woman who was a rebel and a feminist that made her own way in the world until her death last spring. The following haiku I have selected to analyze personify her feelings about the events in her life. She is very honest about the life that she lived and her feelings about her life, she makes no apology to the reader. on the dressing table the ring removed from my finger cherry blossom rain Pg. 22, Love Haiku, Masajo Suzuki This must have been written shortly after she left her husband. After his ultimatum that she either takes care of him or leave the marriage, she chose to leave. This may have been the first decision that she made for herself. She has always done what her family expected of her. She married this man from a sense of duty or family obligation. As she is sitting in front of her dressing table, she reflects on her choice and knows that she has made the right decision for her life. This is also an exciting time, a new life with a restaurant and the freedom to live her life the way she would like to, not the way she is expected to. We also feel a sense of loss and sadness at the ending of her marriage and giving up the inn that she had rebuilt after the fire. sheer summer kimono it pushes them into misery this love of mine Pg. 26, Love Haiku, Masajo Suzuki In this haiku Masajo recognizes that her affair causes pain for not only her family, but also it is causing pain for her, too. In Masajo’s culture having an affair is not only forbidden, it is illegal, which causes her distress. We have to wonder if the affair brought her the happiness she was looking for. It couldn’t have been easy to discover that her lover had deceived her about his wife and children. I think that she also felt that her family had been through enough misfortune without her adding to it with her actions. I get such a sense of sadness and resignation when I read this haiku, she is sad that her choice has caused others pain, but she has made her choice and now she must make the best of her situation. your letter concealed in my kimono breast pocket basking in winter sun Pg. 28, Love Haiku, Masajo Suzuki Knowing that Masajo’s contact with her lover was sporadic, receiving a letter from him must have been a very special thing to her. After all, what girl doesn’t like to receive a love letter? In Masajo’s case a letter would have been highly anticipated and something to be savored. I envision her receiving the letter while she is working, she would have to tuck it away so that she could read it in private later that day. This wouldn’t have been something she could share with anyone, even a close friend. We can feel the coldness of the day, when work is all you have, receiving a letter would brighten that day up. I can see her in my minds eye hurrying home, after closing the pub, to put her feet up and savor each word of the letter, grateful for the contact she has with him. We again see a gamut of emotion from the sadness of a gray day, to the excitement and anticipation that the letter brings as well as the glow of love as she reads the letter. firefly light i step off the path of woman’s virtue Pg. 33, Love Haiku, Masajo Suzuki This was written when Masajo was in her mid fifties. I see this as a reflection of her life. Early in her life, her path was chosen for her, but now she is in a position to set her own course. She must have been acutely aware that a woman of independent means was not the norm in her culture. Having a lover, who was married also defied convention. Masajo wasn’t the subservient wife and mother that was expected of women in those days. She saw herself and her life as something that made her different from the other women of her day. While being different isn’t a bad thing, Masajo lived in a culture that prided itself on traditions and values. She is also seems to question her values and what she stands for in this haiku. A sense of sadness again comes to me while reading this haiku, I also get a sense of failure in some small way in that she has forsaken her virtue to be with her lover. April fool— I do up my hair and go nowhere Pg. 46, Love Haiku, Masajo Suzuki I can feel the anticipation of seeing her lover in the haiku. She has taken time to make herself pretty for him. She envisions where they will go and how their evening will end. Her evening ends with bitter disappointment when he doesn’t show up. We can feel her anger and hurt at the situation. I wonder how long she sat and waited before she conceded that he wasn’t coming that night. How long before she took her makeup off and took her hair down? As with all of Masajo’s haiku, we feel her emotions as we read the passages and see her sitting all alone waiting for someone who isn’t coming. heartsick day— nested deeply in the rattan chair Pg. 52, Love Haiku, Masajo Suzuki This haiku shows us an overwhelming sadness that has enveloped Masajo to the point that she has no energy to do anything except sit in her chair and dwell on her life. We can feel that it would take too much effort to pull herself out of this mood. It is easier to just sit where she is and be sad. Maybe she has had a fight with her lover and that fight keeps replaying in her head with thoughts of what she might have said or done differently. Another thought is that she is reflecting on her life and all of the sadness that she has lived through. She reflects on the choices she has made and wonders if she had chosen a different path, what would her life be like now. This sadness that Masajo describes is the kind that causes a person to just want to go to sleep and hope that the next day is a better one, except it would take so much effort to move from her chair to her bed. without regret . . . is such a life possible? beer foam overflowing Pg. 70, Love Haiku, Masajo Suzuki Although Masajo said that she had no regrets, there are always situations that we would like a chance to do over. She speaks to the death of her ex-husband and the remorse that she feels. If she had stayed with him out of some sense of obligation, what would she have felt? I see her questioning this, would she feel anger at being tied down to her husband. If she had stayed, she wouldn’t have her beloved pub and may not have been able to continue her affair with her lover. This might have given her remorse of a different kind. I also feel that she must have known that she followed a chosen path in her life and that path has given her emotional highs and lows. I can visualize her reflecting on this as she serves the patrons in her pub. I would imagine after a while, serving these people would become so routine, that a person would have lots of time to reflect on their life. When comparing Masajo’s haiku with another contemporary haiku poet such as Peggy Lyles, we see similarities in that they write about life’s experiences. However, Lyles work deals more with smells, scents and sounds, Masajo’s work more directly shows us emotions with telling of the events in her life. mother-daughter small talk snap beans Pg. 48, To Hear the Rain, Peggy Lyles secrets come between even mothers & daughters cherry blossom cakes Pg. 85, Love Haiku, Masjo Suzuki This was a pair of favorite haiku I found. Lyles’ haiku is more “southern living”. Recalling memories and traditions that have been passed down from the generations as their garden flourishes. We can hear the “snap” as the beans break and the low murmur of conversation on a hot, steamy day. Suzuki takes a more pragmatic view at mothers and daughters, knowing that for all they share, there are things that neither wants to talk about with the other. We also get that same sense of summer and plants that Lyles gives us. Where with Suzuki’s work, we know the season because of the seasonal words “cherry blossom” that she uses in the haiku. fruit of my labor: this cherry blossom viewing kimono Pg. 84, Love Haiku, Masajo Suzuki This is one of the few haiku where we feel her sense of satisfaction and accomplishment. While she had no husband to buy her kimono for her, we get the feeling that she doesn’t care that she had to buy her own. I can see her coming in with her packages, opening them up and spreading out the kimono to admire what she has purchased. I can feel her pride with this accomplishment. This is a happy haiku, very positive which is another example of her emotions coming through in her work. She is enjoying her new kimono and the cherry blossom viewing is a big spring event that she will be seen at in her new kimono. Along with the emotions that this haiku shows us, we know what time of year it is with her seasonal words. In conclusion, the haiku that gives the reader the best insight into her life is: winter mist— memories of embracing and being embraced Pg. 11, Love Haiku, Masajo Suzuki This haiku sums up her life so well. Knowing what we do about Masajo, we can again feel her emotions as she reflects upon her life. She has seen sadness and tragedy, she has had success within her restaurant and her haiku, but I still feel a pervading sense of loneliness. Masajo sacrificed much in her life for love, she left her second husband and her family legacy of inn keeping and on some level, she may have sacrificed her morals for love. She refers to her inability to pray and what she fears may be a lack of virtue in two of her haiku. After learning more about her life and the choices she made, we can truly see and feel how the emotions that shaped her writing. This haiku affirms to me that she know that she loved well and was loved in her life and in the end that’s all that really matters. From all accounts, Masajo remained true to her lover until her death in 2003. The gift of Masajo’s haiku and the message that she sends with each verse transcends time. The emotions that she felt as she lived these events are as real today as they were when she wrote them. References Suzuki, M. (2000). Love Haiku (L. Gurga & E. Miyashita, Trans.). Decatur, IL: Brooks Books (Original work published 1955-1998) Takiguchi, S. (2003) "This is Your Haiku Life: Portrait of a Poet". World Haiku Review. Retrieved 06/24/2004, from http://www.worldhaikureview.org/1- /poetslife8_01.shtml Takiguchi, S. (2003) "Requiem for a Poet – Suzuki Masajo (1906-2003)." World Haiku Review. Retrieved 06/24/2004, From http://www.world haikureview.org/3-1/requiem_sm.shtml Lyles, P. (2002). To Hear the Rain. Decatur, IL: Brooks Books