Waka / Tanka: 1200 Years — From the Man'yōshū to Modern Tanka

The 31-Sound Verse, a 1200-Year Lineage

Waka and tanka are the same short verse form in 5-7-5-7-7 = 31 sounds, making one world. It is one of the longest continuously living fixed poetic forms in the world, with its prototype reaching back to the 7th-8th-century Man’yōshū.

What is remarkable is that a person of 1300 years ago and a person of the 21st century inscribe different scenes in the same 31-sound frame. Kakinomoto no Hitomaro of Man’yō, Ki no Tsurayuki of Heian, Yosano Akiko of Meiji, Tawara Machi of the present — all inscribe “what they saw, what they felt” in the same syllable pattern.

Six Phases

Phase 1: The Man’yōshū (8th century)

The oldest surviving anthology, Man’yōshū (compiled around 759), gathers about 4,500 poems from emperors to commoners. Poets of strong individuality — Kakinomoto no Hitomaro, Yamabe no Akahito, Yamanoue no Okura, Ōtomo no Yakamochi — stand side by side. Even the azumauta (eastern songs) and sakimori-uta (frontier guards’ songs) preserve regional and soldiers’ voices.

The character of the Man’yōshū is a “simple, direct, wide-scene” power. Verses like “Ta go no ura yu / uchi idete mireba / mashiro ni so / Fuji no takane ni / yuki wa furikeru” (Yamabe no Akahito) transmit a scene sharper than modern photographs.

Phase 2: The Kokin Wakashū (10th century)

In 905, the first imperially commissioned anthology Kokin Wakashū was made by imperial decree of Emperor Daigo. The editor was Ki no Tsurayuki and others. The pivot from the Man’yō’s power to fine, technique-rich aesthetic occurs here. Techniques such as kakekotoba (pivot word), engo (associated word), and mitate (likening) are established.

The Six Poetry Immortals (Ariwara no Narihira, Ono no Komachi, Henjō, Kisen, Ōtomo no Kuronushi, Fun’ya no Yasuhide) are famous, and Narihira’s “Chihayaburu / kamiyo mo kikazu / Tatsutagawa / karakurenai ni / mizu kukuru to wa” and many others long outlast their era.

Phase 3: The Shinkokin Wakashū (13th century)

In 1205 the Shinkokin Wakashū was made by imperial decree of Retired Emperor Go-Toba, edited by Fujiwara no Teika and others. The aesthetics of yojō (lingering feeling) and yūgen are established. The travel poems of Saigyō and the introspective love poems of Princess Shokushi show verses that dig deep into the interior of the individual.

Verses like Teika’s “Miwataseba / hana mo momiji mo / nakarikeri / ura no tomaya no / aki no yūgure” find beauty in a scene of nothing, connecting to the later aesthetic of wabi-sabi.

Phase 4: Edo-Era Waka and Haikai Renga (17-19th century)

In the Edo period, waka remained an accomplishment of the court, samurai, and kokugaku scholars, while the branch of haikai renga → haiku emerged (with Matsuo Bashō and others in the 17th century). Waka itself became conservative, but kokugaku scholars Kamo no Mabuchi and Motoori Norinaga re-evaluated the Man’yōshū, laying the ground for the Meiji-era waka reform.

Phase 5: The Meiji Waka Reform (1890s-1910s)

In 1892, Masaoka Shiki criticized the Kokin Wakashū and proposed a waka reform along the lines of Man’yō style, shasei, and unified spoken and written language. Yosano Akiko’s Midaregami (1901) shocked with sensual verses like “Yawa hada no / atsuki chishio ni / fure mo mide / sabishikarazuya / michi wo toku kimi.” Ishikawa Takuboku’s three-line tanka is also in this current.

The Araragi school (Itō Sachio, Saitō Mokichi, Shimaki Akahiko) inherited and developed the shasei technique and became the center of Shōwa tanka.

Phase 6: Modern Tanka (1950s-present)

After the war, Terayama Shūji, Okai Takashi, Tsukamoto Kunio and others tried avant-garde tanka. In 1987, Tawara Machi’s Sarada Kinenbi (“Salad Anniversary”) became a 2.8-million-copy hit with “Kono aji ga / ii ne to kimi ga / itta kara / shichi-gatsu muika wa / sarada kinenbi” and brought tanka back to young readers.

Since the 2000s, SNS and Twitter (X) have become platforms for tanka. Homura Hiroshi, Kinoshita Tatsuya, Okano Daiji and others open new expressions of “colloquial tanka.” The poetry scene continues to be active today.

Articles Planned for This Series

The following articles will be published chronologically and by technique (added as they go):

• The Man’yōshū — the oldest surviving anthology
• Kakinomoto no Hitomaro — greatest of the Man’yō poets
• Yamabe no Akahito and Yamanoue no Okura — a contrasting pair
• Ōtomo no Yakamochi and the last of Man’yō
• Kokin Wakashū and Ki no Tsurayuki
• The Six Poetry Immortals — Ariwara no Narihira and Ono no Komachi
• The Gosen and Shūi anthologies
• Shinkokin Wakashū and Fujiwara no Teika
• Saigyō’s travel poems
• Princess Shokushi’s introspection
• The Hyakunin Isshu — 100 poems selected by Teika
• Renga and haikai renga
• Edo-period waka (the kokugaku scholar Kamo no Mabuchi)
• The Meiji waka reform — Masaoka Shiki
• Yosano Akiko and Midaregami
• Ishikawa Takuboku’s three-line tanka
• The Araragi school — Saitō Mokichi
• Avant-garde tanka — Tsukamoto Kunio and Terayama Shūji
• Tawara Machi and Sarada Kinenbi
• Modern tanka — Homura Hiroshi and Kinoshita Tatsuya
• Techniques of tanka — kakekotoba, engo, honkadori
• Form and prosody of tanka
• The imperial family and waka — Utakai Hajime

What Has Not Changed in 1200 Years

That waka and tanka have held the 5-7-5-7-7 of 31 sounds for 1200 years, from the Man’yō to the present, is nearly a miracle. It is a length more detailed than haiku (17 sounds) and more constrained than modern free verse — the exquisite length “to say it and stop, yet not too abbreviated.”

In the era of SNS short-form posting, 31 sounds is neither too long nor too short — it completes in a single tweet, and yet stays with depth, a verse form now reviving. That a Man’yō person of 1200 years ago and a modern person on a smartphone screen can inscribe scenery in the same frame is significant on a personal level too.