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Waka (和歌) or Yamato uta is a genre of Japanese poetry. Waka literally means
Japanese poem in Japanese. The word was originally coined during the Heian
period to differentiate native poetry from the kanshi (Chinese poems) that all
educated Japanese people were also familiar with.
For this reason, the word waka encompasses a number of differing styles. The
main two are tanka (短歌 lit. "short poem") and chōka (長歌 lit. "long poem"), but
there are others: bussokusekika, sedoka and katauta. These last three forms,
however, fell into disuse at the beginning of the Heian period, and chōka
vanished soon afterwards. Thus, the term waka came in time to simply imply the
one sub-form tanka.
Japanese poet and critic Masaoka Shiki created the term tanka in the early
twentieth century for his statement that waka should be renewed and
modernized. Until then, poems of this nature had been referred to as waka or
simply uta ("song, poem"). Haiku is also a term of his invention, used for his
revision of the old hokku form, with the same idea. For economy of thought, we
will use here the term tanka for further description.
Traditionally waka in general has had no concept of rhyme (indeed, certain
arrangements of rhymes, even accidental, were considered dire faults in a
poem), or even of line. Instead of lines, waka has the unit (連) and the phrase
(句). (Units or phrases are often turned into lines when poetry is translated or
transliterated into Western languages, however.)
Japanese poem in Japanese. The word was originally coined during the Heian
period to differentiate native poetry from the kanshi (Chinese poems) that all
educated Japanese people were also familiar with.
For this reason, the word waka encompasses a number of differing styles. The
main two are tanka (短歌 lit. "short poem") and chōka (長歌 lit. "long poem"), but
there are others: bussokusekika, sedoka and katauta. These last three forms,
however, fell into disuse at the beginning of the Heian period, and chōka
vanished soon afterwards. Thus, the term waka came in time to simply imply the
one sub-form tanka.
Japanese poet and critic Masaoka Shiki created the term tanka in the early
twentieth century for his statement that waka should be renewed and
modernized. Until then, poems of this nature had been referred to as waka or
simply uta ("song, poem"). Haiku is also a term of his invention, used for his
revision of the old hokku form, with the same idea. For economy of thought, we
will use here the term tanka for further description.
Traditionally waka in general has had no concept of rhyme (indeed, certain
arrangements of rhymes, even accidental, were considered dire faults in a
poem), or even of line. Instead of lines, waka has the unit (連) and the phrase
(句). (Units or phrases are often turned into lines when poetry is translated or
transliterated into Western languages, however.)