Haiku of Japan
Most Famous Poetry Form in Japan
Haiku (俳句) is a very short form of Japanese poetry. It is consist of three phrases of 5, 7, and 5 syllables. Haiku was originally part of “Renka” (series of poems), which was a style of Japanese poetry that certain number of persons making one long poem in combination. Haiku was the first part of a long Renka poem, but people started to enjoy the Haiku part independently. During the Meiji period, faimous poet Shiki Masaoka defined the rules of Haiku and it became widespread across the country.

Three Main Principles of Haiku
Haiku rhythm Haiku is comprised of 3 phrases. First phrase is with 5syllables, second phrase is with 7 syllables, and last phrase is with again 5 syllables. These phrases with certain numbers of syllables produce distinctive and attractive Seasonal word In Haiku poem, it is necessary to put the seasonal references called Kigo (seasonal word) or Kidai (seasonal topic). It is said that seasonal references is one of the most important elements of Haiku poetry. The seasonal word is usually extracted from the “Saijiki” which is the extensive dictionary of seasonal words. Cutting word Kireji (cutting word) is also an essence of Haiku. Kireji expresses the moment of separation of two images or ideas in the poem. By inserting Kireji in the Haiku, you can feel a rest and that leads the imagination of hidden emotion and background of the poem.

Haiku became Widespread to the Western World
Nowadays, Haiku is spread to the world and became widely popular in many countries. Although there were further attempts outside Japan to imitate the "Haiku" in the early 20th century, there was little understanding of its principles. One of the first advocates of English-language Haiku was the Japanese poet Yone Noguchi. In "A Proposal to American Poets," published in the Reader magazine in 1904, Noguchi gave a brief outline of the Haiku and some of his own English efforts, ending with the exhortation, "Pray, you try Japanese Haiku, my American poets!" At about the same time the poet Sadakichi Hartmann was publishing original English-language Haiku, as well as other Japanese forms in both English and French. In France, Haiku was introduced by Paul-Louis Couchoud around 1906. Couchoud's articles were read by early Imagist theoretician F. S. Flint, who passed on Couchoud's ideas to other members of the proto-Imagist Poets' Club such as Ezra Pound. Amy Lowell made a trip to London to meet Pound and find out about haiku. She returned to the United States where she worked to interest others in this "new" form. Haiku subsequently had a considerable influence on Imagists in the 1910s, notably Pound's "In a Station of the Metro" of 1913, but, notwithstanding several efforts by Yone Noguchi to explain "the haiku spirit," there was as yet little understanding of the form and its history.

Tanka (Waka) of Japan
The Oldest Form of Japanese PoetryTanka (短歌) is a long form of Japanese poetry. It is consists of five phrases of 5, 7, 5, 7 and 7 syllables. This 31-syllable poem has been a popular form of poetry in Japan for more than 1300 years. As a form of poetry, Tanka is much older than Haiku and Senryu, and Tanka evokes a moment with concision and musicality. In Japanese, Tanka is often written in one straight line, while they are usually divided into the five phrases: 5-7-5-7-7 in English and other languages. Normally, each phrase encloses one image or idea. As Tanka is a lyrical in nature, it provides room to the poet to share his feelings. Up to and during the compilation of the Manyoshu in the 8th century, Waka (Poetry of Japan) was a general term for poetry composed in Japanese, and included several genres such as Tanka (短歌, "short poem"), Choka (長歌, "long poem"), Bussokusekika (仏足石歌, "Buddha footprint poem") and Sedoka (旋頭歌, "repeating-the-first-part poem"). However, by the time of the “Kokinshu” collection at the beginning of the 10th century, all of these forms except for the Tanka and Choka had effectively gone extinct, and Choka had significantly diminished in prominence. As a result, the word Waka became effectively synonymous with Tanka, and the word Tanka fell out of use until it was revived at the end of the 19th century.