Linked Verse in Medieval Japan: History, Commentary, Performance

by H. Mack Horton

Linked verse (renga) was the most popular form of poetry in Japan's medieval era (c. 1200-1600 CE). Renga poets linked verses of seventeen and fourteen syllables into long sequences in accordance with complex rules and literary allusions; the first verse, which initially stood alone, was the ancestor of the modern haiku. Courtiers, warriors, and commoners alike practiced linked verse in an atmosphere of literary artistry, scholarship,...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0231191146
• ISBN13: 9780231191142
• Release Date: May 2025
• Publisher: Columbia University Press
• Length: 784 Pages