Renga Guide: A History of Japanese Linked Poetry

Renga is a form of Japanese poetry that features linked verse (“renga” is Japanese for “linked verse”). Renga poetry comprises alternating stanzas, starting with the creation of a single tanka (a Japanese poem consisting of five lines). The sequence follows a simple structure: the first stanza has three lines (a verse of 5-7-5 mora, which are sound units equated to syllables), the second stanza has two lines (a verse of 7-7 syllables), and then the third stanza returns to 5-7-5, and on and on.

Renga poetry is a collaborative art form where multiple renga poets contribute alternating stanzas of a poem. Each renga poet contributes one stanza and alternates with their peers. Typically, at least three poets will create a single work, and different formats of the poem dictate its length. The hyakuin renga, for example, stretches to be as long as 100 stanzas.

Renga is a respected form of poetry in Japan that began more as a pastime and continues to evolve:

• Court poets: Renga poetry was practiced among both court poets (when not crafting more formal waka, or classic Japanese literature) and itinerant monks (known as “hana no moto,” which translates to “under the cherry blossoms,” where these low-ranking priests would ponder and create such poems).
• Religious ties: Given its roots in monk traditions, renga poems were often religiously inspired and were seen as offerings to deities. Soon renga masters helped elevate the art form. The thirteenth-century Japanese poet Nijô Yoshimoto popularized it in the courts and solidified the form via the publication of Tsukubashū (c. 1356), the first of many imperial anthologies documenting renga.
• The golden age: The fifteenth century represented the form’s golden age thanks to the renga master Sōgi, who (as a Zen monk) both studied waka and renga in Kyoto temples and traveled throughout Japan, bringing his work to the masses.
• Global influence: Renga had a prolific effect on global poetry; the haiku is believed to have originated from the three-line stanzas and five-seven-five syllable count seen in the first stanza of renga. As people of more classes began practicing renga, the kasen became its more popular form, as its thirty-six–verse structure was shorter and more accessible than the hyakuin renga. The rules of kasen were less strict—Chinese words could be used—and the poems became bawdier.
• Haikai: In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the kasen gave way to a new form, haikai, a more vulgar, unorthodox, and pun-forward form of renga.

There are multiple types of poems inspired by the renga style:

1. 1. Hyakuin: Originating in the thirteenth century, a hyakuin was one of the first formally recognized renga poems. As such, it reigned as the definitive example of the form and gave way to other iterations in the centuries that followed. A hyakuin has 100 stanzas and is among the longest of renga poems. (A senku, meanwhile, features 1000 stanzas.)
2. 2. Kasen: The kasen was popularized in the Edo period (during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries) and was shorter than the hyakuin; a kasen had greater mass appeal as it features just 36 stanzas, incorporates slang, and could feature salacious themes and humor.
3. 3. Haikai: The democratization of the kasen directly led to the haikai coming into vogue in the seventeenth century. Matsuo Bashō was a famed poet of the Edo period who popularized haikai, which often had a satirical edge and witty playfulness, even while discussing complex topics such as spirituality.
4. 4. Tan renga: “Tan” means “short,” so “tan renga” refers to a shorter renga poem—one consisting of just two verses, or five lines total. Even with only two verses, tan renga still exemplifies linked verse where the first poet would set up a scene and the second would respond to it with something more abstract or emotional that builds on the imagery depicted in the first stanza.

The Japanese poet Sōgi, a fifteenth-century renga master, is the author of many works. Some of his most famous renga poems include “Three Poets at Minase” (1488) and “Three Poets at Yuyama” (1491), both created with two of his disciples (Shōhaku and Sōchō). These poems were included in Sōgi’s Shintsukubashū, an anthology that published the form’s greatest works.

Sōgi, Shōhaku, and Sōchō’s “Three Poets of Minase” (1488) features rotating tankas, five-lined poems with thirty-one syllables total. The first stanza has three lines of five, then seven, then five syllables, and the second stanza has two lines of seven syllables each; from there, the stanza lengths go back and forth.

In terms of subject matter, Sōgi’s poems were appealing because they were accessible. His poetry is about the relationship between humans and nature and features succinct and simple language.

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