CHAPTER IV
POETRY OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY—
HAIKAI, HAIBUN, KIŌKA
It might naturally be supposed that in the Tanka of thirty-one syllables poetry had reached its extreme limit of brevity and conciseness. But a still further step remained to be taken in this direction. In the sixteenth century a kind of poem known as Haikai, which consists of seventeen syllables only, made its appearance. The Haikai is a Tanka minus the concluding fourteen syllables, and is made up of three phrases of five, seven, and five syllables respectively, as in the following:—
Kawadzu tobi-komu,
Midzu no oto."
It differs from Tanka, however, in more than metre, being much less choice in diction and matter than the older kind of poetry. It admits words of Chinese derivation and colloquial expressions, and often deals with subjects which the more fastidious Tanka refuses to meddle with.
The earliest professor of this accomplishment was Yamazaki Sō-kan, a Buddhist priest (1445–1534). The
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