Tanka

The thirty-one-syllable Japanese lyric — five lines, 5-7-5-7-7 — courtly love's classical medium for a millennium.

Specifications & Metrics

type

Fixed poetic form

origin

Nara-period Japan (7th–8th century)

originator

Classical waka tradition (Manyōshū poets)

meter

5-7-5-7-7 on (mora) counts

lines count

5

Core Principles & Analysis

• Thirty-one sound units in a 5-7-5-7-7 pattern.
• Heian courtiers exchanged tanka as love letters the morning after.
• The Manyōshū anthology preserves its earliest great examples.

Sources

• Wikipedia: Tanka