Tanka

Tanka is a five-line Japanese poetic form traditionally arranged in a 5–7–5–7–7 pattern of sound units. It often turns from an image or scene toward reflection or feeling.

Japanese mora: A Japanese timing unit that counts one beat, including a short vowel or a consonant ending. The traditional 5–7–5–7–7 pattern counts morae, not English syllables.
Man'yōshū: An eighth-century Japanese poetry anthology and the oldest surviving collection of Japanese verse. Its poems document the older poetic traditions from which tanka developed.
Tanka journal: A personal record of brief poems that capture moments, observations, or changing emotions. The form’s brevity and reflective movement suit poems grounded in daily experience.
Haiku: A short Japanese poetic form commonly arranged in three phrases with a 5–7–5 mora pattern. Haiku stops after the opening three-part pattern that tanka extends with two more lines.
Kana: The Japanese syllabic writing systems, hiragana and katakana, used alongside kanji. Kana makes the sound-based counting behind tanka’s pattern visible.
Kokin Wakashū: A tenth-century imperial anthology that established influential standards for Japanese waka poetry. Its courtly style helped shape the conventions later associated with tanka.
Tanka sequence: A series of linked tanka arranged to develop a subject, narrative, or changing perspective. Sequences extend the form’s compact meditations across multiple poems.
Senryū: A short Japanese poem in a haiku-like form that often treats human behavior with humor or irony. Senryū shares a compact structure but tends toward social observation rather than tanka’s lyrical development.
Kireji: A Japanese cutting word that marks a pause or rhetorical break in traditional poetry. A cut can shape the turn between tanka’s opening and closing phrases.
Waka: A traditional Japanese poetry category whose principal short form follows a 5–7–5–7–7 sound pattern. Tanka is the modern name for the short poem historically known as waka.

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