Tanka

Tanka (短歌, 'short poem') is a genre of classical Japanese poetry and one of the major genres of Japanese literature.東海の Tōkai no小島の磯の kojima no iso no白砂に shirasuna niわれ泣きぬれて ware naki nurete蟹とたわむる kani to tawamuruOn the white sandOf the beach of a small island In the Eastern Sea.I, my face streaked with tears,Am playing with a crab Tanka (短歌, 'short poem') is a genre of classical Japanese poetry and one of the major genres of Japanese literature. Originally, in the time of the Man'yōshū (latter half of the eighth century AD), the term tanka was used to distinguish 'short poems' from the longer chōka (長歌, 'long poems'). In the ninth and tenth centuries, however, notably with the compilation of the Kokinshū, the short poem became the dominant form of poetry in Japan, and the originally general word waka became the standard name for this form. Japanese poet and critic Masaoka Shiki revived the term tanka in the early twentieth century for his statement that waka should be renewed and modernized. Haiku is also a term of his invention, used for his revision of standalone hokku, with the same idea. Tanka consist of five units (often treated as separate lines when romanized or translated) usually with the following pattern of on (often treated as, roughly, the number of syllables per unit or line): The 5-7-5 is called the kami-no-ku (上の句, 'upper phrase'), and the 7-7 is called the shimo-no-ku (下の句, 'lower phrase'). During the Kojiki and Nihonshoki periods the tanka retained a well defined form, but the history of the mutations of the tanka itself forms an important chapter in haiku history,until the modern revival of tanka began with several poets who began to publish literary magazines, gathering their friends and disciples as contributors. Yosano Tekkan and the poets that were associated with his Myōjō magazine were one example, but that magazine was fairly short-lived (Feb. 1900 – Nov. 1908). A young high school student, Otori You (later known as Akiko Yosano), and Ishikawa Takuboku contributed to Myōjō. In 1980 the New York Times published a representative work: Masaoka Shiki's (1867–1902) poems and writing (as well as the work of his friends and disciples) have had a more lasting influence. The magazine Hototogisu, which he founded, still publishes. In the Meiji period (1868–1912), Shiki claimed the situation with waka should be rectified, and waka should be modernized in the same way as other things in the country. He praised the style of Man'yōshū as manly, as opposed to the style of Kokin Wakashū, the model for waka for a thousand years, which he denigrated and called feminine. He praised Minamoto no Sanetomo, the third shōgun of the Kamakura shogunate, who was a disciple of Fujiwara no Teika and composed waka in a style much like that in the Man'yōshū. Following Shiki's death, in the Taishō period (1912–26), Mokichi Saitō and his friends began publishing a magazine, Araragi, which praised the Man'yōshū. Using their magazine they spread their influence throughout the country. Their modernization aside, in the court the old traditions still prevailed. The court continues to hold many utakai (waka reading parties) both officially and privately. The utakai that the Emperor holds on the first of the year is called Utakai Hajime and it is an important event for waka poets; the Emperor himself releases a single tanka for the public's perusal.