Q 01/05

A traditional Japanese haiku is arranged in which pattern?

A) 5-7-5

B) 7-5-7

C) 5-5-7

D) 3-5-3

Answer · why

A) 5-7-5

5-7-5: though Bashō himself broke it now and then, and his verse about carrying Mount Fuji's wind home on a fan opens with six beats instead of five.

Q 02/05

Which older Japanese verse form has 31 on to a haiku's 17?

A) Tanka

B) Chōka

C) Senryū

D) Haibun

Answer · why

A) Tanka

Tanka: each January the emperor hosts a palace reading of them, and anyone in Japan may send one in on that year's set theme.

Q 03/05

What does on, the name of the unit counted in Japanese haiku, literally mean?

A) Breath

B) Step

C) Thread

D) Sound

Answer · why

D) Sound

Sound: an on is briefer than an English syllable, so translators reckon about twelve English syllables last as long as seventeen on, and many English ...

Q 04/05

What is a kigo?

A) A closing rhyme

B) A title line

C) A season word

D) A cutting word

Answer · why

C) A season word

A season word: the approved lists keep growing, and Christmas, a foreign festival, now counts as a winter kigo.

Q 05/05

What is a kireji in a haiku?

A) A poem monument

B) A cutting word

C) A season word

D) A pen name

Answer · why

B) A cutting word

A cutting word: it makes a verse complete in itself, which is why the opening verse of a linked poem had to carry one and could later stand alone.