No doubt, the framework of Sayumi’s thought and images is influenced by Basho about whom J. Thomas remarks: “Basho was deified by both the imperial government and Shinto religious headquarters one hundred years after his death because he raised the haikai genre from a playful game of wit to sublime poetry. He continues to be revered as a saint of poetry in Japan, and is the one name from classical Japanese literature that is familiar throughout the world” (Rimer 69-70). We should remember that Sayumi like T. S. Eliot has emphasized the great importance of past tradition: “Haiku is borne of the study of works that have come before. This is a truism not limited to haiku alone. One sees it throughout all genres, whether music, painting, sculpture or theater.” (The Poetic Achievement of Ban’ya Natsuishi 86). W. B. Yeats also in his Nobel Prize speech remarked: “I think when Lady Gregory’s name and John Synge’s name are spoken by future generations, my name, if remembered, will come up in the talk…for their work and mine has delighted in history and tradition”
(373-374). -- Santosh Kumar