Elements of traditional Haiku

[sumonasumonakha.t]

What are the Rules of Japanese Haiku?
Short poems that originated in Japan, Haiku are now written across the world and in many languages.

The rules of Haiku
English haiku and those written in languages other than Japanese tend to incorporate some aspects of the traditional Japanese poems but have their own rules and conventions. However, haiku never feature rhymes.

What rules do Japanese haiku adhere to and how did these poems evolve?



Origin and evolution
Haiku evolved from a form of Japanese collaborative poetry known as Renga . Poems of this genre are comprised of alternating stanzas known as ku that are written by multiple poets. Each stanza boasts a prescribed number of sound units per line called mora（拍). Renga originated in the 8th century and the first anthology of the poems was produced in 1356 by which time the writing of these poems was considered an artform. The most celebrated renga master was Sōgi .


Matsuo Bashō Haiku
Haikai is a derivative of renga that appeared in the 16th century. It was initially a genre of informal linked verse that featured satire and puns. By the time of the haikai master Matsuo Bashō (1644 – 1695) haikai had become a more serious literary genre.


The opening stanza of a renga or haikai is known as the hokku. As the opening verse it is the most important element of a poem. By the 17th century hokku had started to appear as independent poems and in the 19th century, Masaoka Shiki renamed these standalone poems, calling them haiku.



If you are familiar with English or European haiku, you might be surprised to see the extent to which many of these poems differ from traditional Japanese compositions.


Units of sound
English Haiku usually feature three lines containing a total of 17 syllables with the first and last line each guatemala mobile database having 5 syllables and the middle line having 7 syllables. Traditional Japanese Haiku also boast 17 units of sound in a 5-7-5 pattern. These units of sound are known as onor mora. While the term on is often translated as “syllable”, it is a more nuanced concept. Elongated vowels and double consonants are considered to contain two on and an n at the end of a word is an additional on.


5 7 5 Haiku Rule
For instance, the word “on” itself would be a single syllable in English but in Japan is viewed as having two units of sound because it ends in an n. There are also Japanese words that English speakers would think of as having two syllables, but which are, in fact, a single on.