hanka

Japanese literature

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  In Japanese literature: The significance of the Man’yōshū

  …concluded with one or more hanka (“envoys”) that resume central points of the preceding poem. The hanka written by the 8th-century poet Yamabe Akahito are so perfectly conceived as to make the chōka they follow at times seem unnecessary; the concision and evocativeness of these poems, identical in form with…

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