Poetry

===Tanka===
{{Main|Tanka}}
[[File:Kakinomoto Hitomaro.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Kakinomoto no Hitomaro]]]]
Tanka is a form of unrhymed [[Japanese poetry]], with five sections totalling 31 ''[[On (Japanese prosody)|on]]'' (phonological units identical to [[Mora (linguistics)|morae]]), structured in a 5–7–5–7–7 pattern.<ref>{{Cite book |title=Global linguistic flows |publisher=Taylor & Francis |year=2009 |isbn=978-0-8058-6283-6 |editor-last1=Samy Alim |editor-first1=H. |page=181 |editor-last2=Ibrahim |editor-first2=Awad|editor3-link=Alastair Pennycook |editor-last3=Pennycook |editor-first3=Alastair}}</ref> There is generally a shift in tone and subject matter between the upper 5–7–5 phrase and the lower 7–7 phrase. Tanka were written as early as the [[Asuka period]] by such poets as [[Kakinomoto no Hitomaro]] (''fl.'' late 7th century), at a time when Japan was emerging from a period where much of its poetry followed Chinese form.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Brower |first1=Robert H. |title=Japanese court poetry |last2=Miner |first2=Earl |publisher=Stanford University Press |year=1988 |isbn=978-0-8047-1524-9 |pages=86–92}}</ref> Tanka was originally the shorter form of Japanese formal poetry (which was generally referred to as "[[waka (poetry)|waka]]"), and was used more heavily to explore personal rather than public themes. By the tenth century, tanka had become the dominant form of Japanese poetry, to the point where the originally general term ''waka'' ("Japanese poetry") came to be used exclusively for tanka. Tanka are still widely written today.<ref>{{Cite book |title=The tanka anthology: tanka in English from around the world |publisher=Red Moon Press |year=2003 |isbn=978-1-893959-40-8 |editor-last1=McCllintock |editor-first1=Michael |pages=xxx–xlviii |editor-last2=Ness |editor-first2=Pamela Miller |editor-last3=Kacian |editor-first3=Jim}}</ref>