Tanka is a genre of classical Japanese poetry and one of the major genres of Japanese literature.
Japanese literature throughout most of its history has been influenced by cultural contact with neighboring Asian literatures, most notably China and its literature. Early texts were often written in pure Classical Chinese or lit. 'Chinese writing', a Chinese-Japanese creole language. Indian literature also had an influence through the spread of Buddhism in Japan.
Masaoka Shiki, pen-name of Masaoka Noboru, was a Japanese poet, author, and literary critic in Meiji period Japan. Shiki is regarded as a major figure in the development of modern haiku poetry, credited with writing nearly 20,000 stanzas during his short life. He also wrote on reform of tanka poetry.
Sei Shōnagon was a Japanese author, poet, and a court lady who served the Empress Teishi (Sadako) around the year 1000 during the middle Heian period. She is the author of The Pillow Book.
Japanese poetry is poetry typical of Japan, or written, spoken, or chanted in the Japanese language, which includes Old Japanese, Early Middle Japanese, Late Middle Japanese, and Modern Japanese, as well as poetry in Japan which was written in the Chinese language or ryūka from the Okinawa Islands: it is possible to make a more accurate distinction between Japanese poetry written in Japan or by Japanese people in other languages versus that written in the Japanese language by speaking of Japanese-language poetry. Much of the literary record of Japanese poetry begins when Japanese poets encountered Chinese poetry during the Tang dynasty. Under the influence of the Chinese poets of this era Japanese began to compose poetry in Chinese (kanshi); and, as part of this tradition, poetry in Japan tended to be intimately associated with pictorial painting, partly because of the influence of Chinese arts, and the tradition of the use of ink and brush for both writing and drawing. It took several hundred years to digest the foreign impact and make it an integral part of Japanese culture and to merge this kanshi poetry into a Japanese language literary tradition, and then later to develop the diversity of unique poetic forms of native poetry, such as waka, haikai, and other more Japanese poetic specialties. For example, in the Tale of Genji both kanshi and waka are frequently mentioned. The history of Japanese poetry goes from an early semi-historical/mythological phase, through the early Old Japanese literature inclusions, just before the Nara period, the Nara period itself, the Heian period, the Kamakura period, and so on, up through the poetically important Edo period and modern times; however, the history of poetry often is different from socio-political history.
Hyakunin Isshu (百人一首) is a classical Japanese anthology of one hundred Japanese waka by one hundred poets. Hyakunin isshu can be translated to "one hundred people, one poem [each]"; it can also refer to the card game of uta-garuta, which uses a deck composed of cards based on the Hyakunin Isshu.
Ise no Taifu (伊勢大輔), also known as Ise no Tayū or Ise no Ōsuke, was a Japanese waka poet active in the later Heian period.
Cuculus is a genus of cuckoos which has representatives in most of the Old World, although the greatest diversity is in tropical southern and southeastern Asia.
Kiyohara no Motosuke was a Heian period waka poet and Japanese nobleman. His daughter was the Heian poet and author Sei Shōnagon, famous today for writing The Pillow Book. He is designated a member of the Thirty-six Poetry Immortals, and one of his poems is included in the famous Ogura Hyakunin Isshu. His court career included terms as governor of Kawachi Province and Higo Province.
The Sunda cuckoo or Sunda lesser cuckoo is a South-east Asian bird belonging to the genus Cuculus in the cuckoo family, Cuculidae. It was formerly classified with the Himalayan cuckoo and Oriental cuckoo in a single species, C. saturatus, but is now often regarded as a separate species based on differences in voice, size and plumage.
Sokotsu Samukawa was a Haiku poet in Japan during the Meiji period. Sokotsu was a pen name and his real name was Akimitsu (陽光).
The Ikaho Ropeway is a Japanese aerial lift line in Shibukawa, Gunma. The ropeway connects the onsen group of the Shibukawa Ikahomachi district to the summit of Mount Monokiki and the park facilities of Mount Kaminoyama.
Kyoshi Takahama was a Japanese poet active during the Shōwa period of Japan. His real name was Takahama Kiyoshi (高浜清); Kyoshi was a pen name given to him by his mentor, Masaoka Shiki.
Inu makura or The Dog Pillow (犬枕) is an early-Edo period Japanese literary parody of The Pillow Book of Sei Shōnagon. The title has also been translated as The Mongrel Pillow.
Hototogisu is a Japanese literary magazine focusing primarily on haiku. Founded in 1897, it was responsible for the spread of modern haiku among the Japanese public and is now Japan's most prestigious and long-lived haiku periodical.
The composition and translation of tanka in English begins at the end of the nineteenth century in England and the United States. Translations into English of classic Japanese tanka date back at least to the 1865 translation of the classic Ogura Hyakunin Isshu ; an early publication of originally English tanka dates to 1899. In the United States, the publication of tanka in Japanese and in English translation acquired extra impetus after World War II and was followed by a rise of the genre's popularity among native speakers of English.
Fujiwara no Sanekata was a Japanese waka poet of the mid-Heian period. One of his poems was included in the Ogura Hyakunin Isshu. He left a private waka collection, the Sanekata-shū.
Kawahigashi Hekigotō, birth name Kawahigashi Heigorō, was a Japanese poet and modern pioneer of the haiku form.
