Renga

Renga (連歌, linked poem) is a genre^[1] of Japanese collaborative poetry in which alternating stanzas, or ku (句), of 5-7-5 and 7-7 mora (sound units, not to be confused with syllables) per line are linked in succession by multiple poets. Known as tsukuba no michi (筑波の道 The Way of Tsukuba) after the famous Tsukuba Mountain in the Kantō region, the form of poetry is said to have originated in a two-verse poetry exchange by Yamato Takeru and later gave birth to the genres haikai (俳諧) and haiku (俳句).^[2]

The genre was elevated to a literary art by Nijō Yoshimoto (二条良基, 1320–1388), who compiled the first imperial renga anthology Tsukubashū (菟玖波集) in 1356. The most famous renga master was Sōgi (宗祇, 1421–1502), and Matsuo Bashō (松尾芭蕉, 1644–1694) after him became the most famous haikai master. Renga sequences were typically composed live during gatherings of poets, transcribed oral sessions known as rengakai (連歌会), but could also be composed by single poets as mainly textual works.