poetry

...The situation is particularly complicated when it comes to the word "poetry" in Japanese. The term "poetry" originally referred to a style of Chinese literature, and up until the Edo period, "poetry" meant so-called Chinese poetry. However, since the Meiji period, the concept of poetry (English) or "poésie" (French) in Western literature has been introduced, and as a result, the term "poetry" now refers in a narrow sense to new-style poetry as a branch of literature and to modern and contemporary poetry that came after it, while in a broad sense it can also refer to the whole of verse art as opposed to prose among language arts. However, the verse art unique to Japan has not traditionally been called "poetry," and other terms such as "uta" and "ku" are still used today, so that in the narrow sense, poetry is often treated as one of the forms of expression along with tanka, haiku, and kayo, while the term "shika" is used conveniently to describe poetry in the broad sense.

*Some explanations of terms that mention "poetry" are listed below.

Source | Heibonsha World Encyclopedia 2nd Edition | Information

…とりわけ日本語で〈詩〉といった場合には事情が複雑である。詩という呼称はもともと中国の文芸上の一様式をさすものであり，江戸時代までは詩といえばいわゆる漢詩をさしていたが，明治以降，西欧文芸におけるポエトリーpoetry(英語)またはポエジーpoésie(フランス語)の理念が導入された結果，現在では，詩といえば狭義には文芸の一部門としての新体詩およびそれ以後の近代詩，現代詩をさしながら，広義には言語芸術のうちで散文に対立する韻文芸術の総体を包括的にさすこともある言葉となった。しかし日本固有の韻文芸術は伝統的に詩とは呼ばれず，歌や句といった別種の呼称を現在でも守っているから，狭義の詩はしばしば短歌や俳句や歌謡と並ぶ表現様式の一つとして扱われる一方，広義の詩を言いあらわすためには便宜的に〈詩歌〉という言葉が使われたりする。…

※「poetry」について言及している用語解説の一部を掲載しています。

出典｜株式会社平凡社世界大百科事典 第２版について | 情報