Haiku vs Senryu vs Tanka: How Japanese Short Forms Differ
Japanese forms · Disambiguation · Updated 2026-07-22
Haiku and senryu share the same 5-7-5 shape, so counting syllables will never tell them apart: haiku turns on nature and season, senryu turns on human behaviour, usually with a wry or satiric edge. Tanka is the longer one - five lines in a 5-7-5-7-7 pattern, 31 sound units instead of 17, and unlike haiku it welcomes metaphor, simile, and stated feeling.
Renga and renku, haibun, and haiga are the other names a reader runs into, each a different container for the same short verse. The table below sorts all six by what actually distinguishes them: subject, required elements, era, and the exemplar you have probably already read.
Japanese short-form comparison matrix
| Form | Lines | Mora pattern | Typical subject | Kigo required | Kireji required | Metaphor / simile | Era of origin | Exemplar |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Haiku | 3 in English, one vertical line in Japanese | 5-7-5 (17 mora) | Nature or season, intuitively linked to the human condition | Yes in traditional Japanese practice; optional in English-language haiku | Yes in traditional practice; English uses a line break or dash as the cut | Traditionally avoided; image is meant to stand on its own | Hokku from the 1600s; the standalone verse renamed haiku by Masaoka Shiki in the 1890s | Bashō, *furuike ya* (1686), "old pond / a frog leaps in / the sound of water"; the English wording varies by translator |
| Senryu | 1 to 3 | 5-7-5 (17 mora) | Human foibles, social behaviour, usually humorous or satiric | No | No | Allowed | Edo period; named for judge Karai Senryū (1718-1790), first collection *Haifū Yanagidaru*, 1765 | The anonymous *Yanagidaru* verses, selected from capping contests |
| Tanka | 5 | 5-7-5-7-7 (31 mora) | Love, longing, grief, direct personal feeling | No, though season words are common | No; a pivot between the upper and lower phrases does similar work | Yes, freely | 8th century; the *Man'yōshū* was compiled after 759 CE | Ono no Komachi; in the modern era, Ishikawa Takuboku |
| Renga / renku | Many; a *kasen* runs 36 verses | Alternating 5-7-5 and 7-7 links | Collaborative sequence moving through season, moon, flower and love | Yes, in the verses the schedule assigns to a season | Yes, in the opening *hokku* | Avoided; verses connect by association and scent, not by simile | Classical renga by the 1200s; haikai no renga, now called renku, from the 1600s | Bashō and his circle in *Sarumino* (1691) |
| Haibun | Prose of any length, closing with one or more haiku | Prose is unmetred; the embedded haiku is 5-7-5 | Travel, memoir, and observation, with the haiku carrying the turn | Follows the embedded haiku | Follows the embedded haiku | Allowed in the prose, restrained in the haiku | 17th century | Bashō, *Oku no Hosomichi* (The Narrow Road to the Deep North), published 1702 |
| Haiga | One haiku, inscribed on an image | 5-7-5 in the inscribed poem | Nature, season, and travel, with picture and poem in dialogue | Follows the haiku | Follows the haiku | The image supplies the resonance rather than a stated comparison | Edo period, 1600s; developed as an art by the 1700s | Yosa Buson (1716-1784), the acknowledged master; Nonoguchi Ryuho (1595-1669) is usually credited with founding the style |
One caution on the mora column: Japanese counts on or mora, not English syllables. A long vowel is two mora and the syllabic n is one on its own. The Haiku Society of America's own figure for the consequence is that about 12 English syllables approximate the duration of 17 Japanese mora, which is why so much serious English-language haiku runs short of 5-7-5.
Subject, not syllable count, is the dividing line
The Haiku Society of America is the body most English-language editors defer to, and its definitions separate the two 17-mora forms by content rather than shape. Haiku is defined around an experience of nature or the season intuitively linked to the human condition, with a cut suggesting a relationship between two images. Senryu is defined around the human condition in its many dimensions; earlier HSA wording said plainly that senryu highlights the foibles of human nature, usually in a humorous or satiric way. The HSA has revised these definitions repeatedly since first adopting them in 1973, most recently in 2026, so cite the edition you are quoting.
In practice editors apply a simpler test. A haiku is anchored by a kigo, a season word, and by a kireji, the cutting word that breaks it into two parts; a senryu needs neither. Take the season word out of a real haiku and the poem loses its footing. Take it out of a senryu and nothing happens, because the poem was about people all along.
What tanka's extra two lines actually buy
Tanka is older than haiku by roughly a thousand years. It began as the uta, then the waka, and it dominates the Man'yōshū, Japan's oldest major anthology, which holds over four thousand tanka. The 5-7-5 opening is the kami-no-ku, the upper phrase; the 7-7 close is the shimo-no-ku. Haiku descends from that upper phrase by way of the linked-verse hokku, which is why the two forms share a rhythm.
- Fourteen more mora means room to state a feeling instead of only implying it. Tanka can say I miss you; haiku has to show you the empty coat.
- Metaphor and simile are permitted, and so are rhetorical devices like the pivot word that reads one way with the lines above it and another with the lines below.
- The turn sits between phrases, so a tanka can set an image then answer it - closer to a short lyric than to haiku's juxtaposition.
- No season word is required. Seasons fill classical tanka, but as material rather than as a rule.
Read the forms side by side instead of reading about them. The fastest way to internalise the difference is to read fifty of each. Haiku ships a library of over 3,000 poems from 129 poets, and its Collections view lets you browse by form - sonnet, haiku, free verse, ghazal - as well as by era, theme, and mood, which is exactly the sorting this page describes. Long-press any line to highlight it and your marked lines collect in one quiet view for later, all on your device. Download Haiku: Daily Poems & Poetry on the App Store.
The linked and hybrid forms
- Renga, then renku: Poets alternate 5-7-5 and 7-7 stanzas under a schedule governing where moon, flower, and love verses fall. Classical renga was courtly and strict; haikai no renga was its plainer-spoken descendant, and renku is the modern name for that line. Bashō considered this collaborative work, not his standalone verses, his best achievement.
- Hokku, the ancestor of haiku: The hokku is the opening verse of a renga or renku. Because it sets the season and greets the host, it carries the kigo and the kireji - which is exactly why haiku inherited both. Masaoka Shiki renamed the standalone hokku haiku in the late 19th century.
- Haibun and haiga: Both are haiku plus something else: haibun pairs terse prose with one or more haiku, on the model of Bashō's Oku no Hosomichi; haiga pairs a haiku in calligraphy with a spare brush painting. In each the two halves resonate rather than explain, so the haiku is never a caption.
Sorting a reading life by form
Definitions stick when you meet the forms daily rather than study them once. Haiku delivers one poem each morning to your Home Screen and Lock Screen through a WidgetKit widget, then lets you go sideways into Collections and read a run of a single form in one sitting. Every author comes with a Wikipedia-enriched biography, so when Bashō or Buson turns up you can check which of these six forms he was actually working in. No account, no sign-in, and your highlights stay on your device.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between a haiku, a tanka, and a senryu?
Haiku and senryu are both 17 mora in a 5-7-5 pattern; haiku is about nature and season connected to human experience and traditionally needs a season word and a cut, while senryu is about human behaviour and needs neither. Tanka is longer at 5-7-5-7-7, 31 mora across five lines, and permits metaphor, simile, and directly stated emotion.
Can a poem be both a haiku and a senryu?
Editors disagree, and the same poem is sometimes anthologised as both. The usual test is whether the season word carries structural weight: if removing it collapses the poem, it is a haiku; if the poem was really about people and the season was scenery, it is a senryu.
Is a tanka just a longer haiku?
It is the other way round. Tanka came first, appearing in the Man'yōshū compiled after 759 CE, and haiku descends from its 5-7-5 upper phrase by way of the hokku, the opening verse of linked verse. Tanka also allows figurative language that traditional haiku avoids.
What is the difference between renga and renku?
They are the same activity at different points in history. Renga is classical collaborative linked verse, formal and courtly; haikai no renga is the plainer, wittier style that Bashō raised into serious art, and renku is the modern term for that haikai line. A standard renku sequence, the kasen, runs 36 verses.