Tanka: thirty-one sound units, many ways to speak

Hear the five groups

The usual 5–7–5–7–7 pattern divides into an opening 5–7–5 and a closing 7–7. A poem from Tachibana Akemi’s Dokurakugin finds pleasure in waking to flowers that were not there yesterday. The table separates its Japanese reading into 31 morae; it does not prescribe five printed lines. Long-vowel units, the nasal n and the closure written with a small tsu count separately.

The poem begins by announcing pleasure and only completes that thought with “when” at the end. Between them comes a discovery on waking: a flower has opened where none was visible yesterday. The contrast between yesterday and this morning makes a small observation carry the feeling. Its five groups form one developing thought, not five independent statements.

Swallows beside a dying mother

In his 1913 collection Shakkō, Saitō Mokichi writes of two red-throated swallows on a roof beam, then of his dying mother. The poem moves from precise colour, number and location to an intimate loss. Placing these observations together gives the scene its emotional force without adding a separate declaration of grief. Mokichi’s museum explains shasei as an encounter between close observation and the self, rather than a mechanical copy of what the eye sees.

Who is speaking?

A tanka may draw on the poet’s experience, but it can also construct a speaker. Discussing Terayama Shūji, scholar Tōgō Yūji identifies a move away from autobiographical lyric towards fiction. A reader can therefore ask what the speaking voice sees or remembers before treating its statements as the poet’s biography. Continuity of form does not mean that every generation uses the same idea of a poetic self.

One form within waka

Tanka predominates in the Man’yōshū, whose poems mainly date from the seventh and eighth centuries, but that anthology contains other forms too. Waka and tanka are therefore not interchangeable in every historical setting. The anthology’s compilation date and compiler remain uncertain.

From anthologies to wider circulation

Illustrations of objects and activities, not historical originals or named people.

The Kokin Wakashū of 905 and the Shinkokin Wakashū, commissioned in 1201 and subsequently revised, were compiled at different moments. Court commissions produced anthologies, while poetry contests brought works together for comparison and judgment; some contest poems subsequently entered collections. Waka continued through the Edo period in court, warrior and commoner settings. Teaching lineages and exchanged manuscripts sustained traditions, while printed anthologies, individual collections and criticism broadened access. Kokugaku scholars also reconsidered older writing.

Daily observation and modern reform

Akemi’s late-Edo Dokurakugin repeatedly frames pleasure as “when…”: family, books, food and flowers become subjects.

In 1898 Masaoka Shiki called for reform and advocated shasei, sketching from observed life. Yosano Akiko, whose Midaregami appeared in 1901, became a leading poet of Japanese Romanticism. Modern tanka developed through differing practices rather than a single programme.

Five sound groups, three printed lines

Ishikawa Takuboku used three-line layouts in his 1910 collection, separating visual arrangement from the underlying sound groups. Saitō Mokichi’s Shakkō and the magazine Araragi show the importance of books and poetry associations.

After the war, a 1954 magazine award brought attention to Terayama Shūji; Tawara Machi’s 1987 Salad Anniversary reached readers through conversational language.

From a social feed to a printed magazine

Illustrations of objects and activities, not historical originals or named people.

Since 2022, NHK Publishing’s Tanka Photography Club has invited poems paired with photographs through X, then selected contributions for the printed NHK Tanka magazine. It offers one concrete example of current participation: social platforms, images and print can connect without replacing books or poetry groups.