Waka (Japanese:和歌) orYamato uta is agenre ofJapanesepoetry. Wakaliterally means"Japanese poem" inJapanese. The wordwaka was originally created by poets during theHeian Period to make clear the difference between native Japanese poetry and thekanshi (Japanese:漢詩, "Chinese poems"). This meant that they put together several differentstyles, one of them beingtanka (Japanese:短歌 lit. "short poem") and the otherchōka (Japanese:長歌 lit. "long poem"). There are others:bussokusekika (Japanese:仏足石歌 lit. "rock of the Buddha's footprint poem"),sedōka (Japanese:旋頭歌 lit. "whirling head poem") andkatauta (Japanese:片歌 lit. "poem fragment").
These last three forms were no longer used at the beginning of the Heian Period, andchōka also disappeared a short time after. So, the termwaka came in time to mean the same astanka. Tanka is a much older form of Japanese poetry thanhaiku.
Waka did not follow any rules ofrhyme, nor line; it was a free style kind of poetry. This can be seen in this example of tanka written by poetYamanoue no Okura (660 - 733)
| 銀も | Shirogane mo | What are they to me, |
| 金も玉も | Kogane mo tama mo | Silver, or gold, or jewels? |
| 何せんに | Nanisen ni | How could they ever |
| まされる宝 | Masareru takara | Equal the greater treasure |
| 子にしかめやも | Koni shikame yamo | That is a child? They can't. |
