Poetry

Poetry is admired in Rokugan as the highest form of literature. The traditional short poems and songs are known as waka, are written in short lines with thirty-one syllables following a 5-7-5-7-7 syllabic pattern. A popular challenge in court is to compose a short poem, and this would require the artist to think quickly on their feet to use what his opponent just performed and turn it back against them. The best known compilation of poems is the Manyoshu, which was compiled by Ikoma Ume and contains over four-thousand individual waka from great poet masters such as Kakita Kiyamori, Akodo Tomei and Rezan. The more modern form of poetry called renga follows the same syllabic pattern as waka, but is performed by two people. The first person performs the 5-7-5 then the second finishes with the 7-7. One of the most highly regarded poets of the 12th century is Kitsune Shikitora who spent over fifty years collecting poems from across the Empire. Every year a poetry competition is held by the Emperor, and sponsored by the Crane Clan. Thousands of people enter their waka on a topic chosen by the Emperor himself. It was at one of these competitions many years ago that the ronin Rezan saved his own life by winning the competition. He had criticized the imperial policies of the then Emperor, and was subsequently commanded to commit seppuku. Rezan was also the first to develop the shortest form of poetry known as haiku. Until that time most poetry shorter than five lines was considered frivolous.