hokku
Noun
Meaning
hokku (plural hokkus or hokku)
(poetry) Synonym of haiku (“type of Japanese poem”)
Synonyms
Examples
Henderson translated every hokku and haiku into a rhymed tercet (a-b-a), whereas the Japanese originals never used rhyme.
In "A Proposal to American Poets," published in the Reader magazine in February 1904, Noguchi gave a brief outline of the hokku and some of his own English efforts, ending with the exhortation, "Pray, you try Japanese Hokku, my American poets!"
Even though hokku had sometimes appeared individually, they were always understood in the context of renku.
The Bashō school promoted standalone hokku by including many in their anthologies, thus giving birth to what is now called "haiku".
The term "hokku" is now used chiefly in its original sense of the opening verse of a renku, and rarely to distinguish haiku written before Shiki's time.