"The more the Japanese people tried to condense the content of a poem into seventeen syllables or less, the harder they had to think about how to deal strictly with the tediousness which is the special feature of the Japanese language, giving up as many conjunctions, adjectives, and especially verbs as possible. In addition to that, they learned advanced techniques of how to grasp sensitively the main points or the vital points of every object.
The way of grasping was not abstract and ideal, but how to discover a word or words with which they could express every scene fully and as instantly as lightning. As a result, the art of haiku started to have close relationship with sumie ("ink pictures": a Chinese style of painting adopted by Japanese painters in the 14th century) which had been developed by the Zen sect since the Muro-machi period(1333-1568).
In sumie painting you can paint broadly, only with a few brush strokes, a whole landscape including trees, falls, bridges, small boats, and so on. As well as sumie painters, haiku poets can describe vividly, only with seventeen syllables, sensitive and emotional state of affairs which other writers may need as many words as to fill an entire book. It is important to appreciate something hidden in unpainted spaces when you look at a sumie painting. In the same way, it is essential to sense something involved in a wordless line when you read haiku."
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