renga

("linked verse"). Form of poetry that flourished chiefly from the 13th through the 16th century and that culminated in the late 15th century in such 100-stanza masterpieces as Minase sangin hyakuin (1488, One Hundred Links by Three Poets at Minase). The origin of renga, however, is in tan renga (short renga), a 31-syllable poem (waka) composed in two units: a three-line unit of 5, 7, and 5 syllables by one poet, followed by a unit of two 7-sylllable lines by another. Out of this tradition arose chō-renga (long renga), or kusari renga (chain renga), an extended sequence of alternating 5-7-5 and 7-7 units composed by one or, more commonly, multiple poets. (adapted from Japan: An Illustrated Encyclopedia. Tokyo: Kodansha, 1993)