Kigo

A word or phrase that signals a season in Japanese poetry, especially haiku. Kigo often evoke culturally familiar associations as well as a time of year.

Haiku: A short Japanese poetic form traditionally structured around 17 morae in three phrases. Kigo is a defining convention of traditional haiku, though not every haiku uses one.
Saijiki: A reference book that classifies Japanese seasonal words and gives examples of their poetic use. Saijiki organize kigo by season and category, guiding their conventional interpretation.
Waka: A Japanese poetic tradition, especially the five-line form later known as tanka. Seasonal topics and imagery were established in waka before haiku emerged.
Muki: A Japanese haiku category for poems without an explicit seasonal word. Muki names the deliberate absence of the feature that defines kigo.
Kireji: A Japanese cutting word that marks a pause or rhetorical turn in poetry. Kireji and kigo are distinct conventions that often work together in haiku.
Honzon: The principal object of devotion in a Buddhist tradition. In haikai, a seasonal word can act as a poem's honzon, or central subject.
Renga: A Japanese collaborative linked-verse form in which poets compose alternating stanzas. Renga developed seasonal conventions that later shaped haikai and haiku.
Mujōki: A haiku without a season word or seasonal reference. Mujōki shows that a poem can evoke experience without signaling a season.
Japanese calendar: A lunisolar calendar historically used in Japan, followed by the Gregorian calendar since 1873. Traditional seasonal references in poetry reflect a calendar once organized around different month boundaries.
Seasonal imagery: Images associated with particular times of year in literature and art. Kigo compress seasonal imagery into a word or phrase.

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