Tanka is a genre of classical Japanese poetry and one of the major genres of Japanese literature.
A poetry card from the card game version of the Ogura Hyakunin Isshu, a compilation of tanka
Last tanka poems by Miyazawa Kenji wrote in September of 1933 before his death. It reads: Within these ten square miles: is this in Hinuki alone? The rice ripe and for three festival days the whole sky clear Because of an illness, crumbling, this life— if I could give it for the dharma how glad I would be
Ceremony of the Utakai Hajime, about 1950
Haiku is a type of short-form poetry that originated in Japan. Traditional Japanese haiku consist of three phrases composed of 17 morae in a 5, 7, 5 pattern that include a kireji or "cutting word" and
Tanka
…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…
Haiku by Matsuo Bashō reading "Quietly, quietly, / yellow mountain roses fall – / sound of the rapids"
Portrait of Bashō by Sugiyama Sanpū