Hokku - Hoku

A term used in linked verse and haikai poetry. At first, it referred to the first five characters of a tanka poem, and later to the upper verse (5-7-5), but when linked verse and linked ku, which alternate between a long verse of 17 syllables (5-7-5) and a short verse of 14 syllables (7-7), were established, the long verse at the beginning of a volume came to be called hokku, in distinction from the second verse (wakiku) and the tsukeku (attached verse) that follow. Unlike the upper verse of a tanka poem, it had to express a complete thought, and it was required to incorporate seasonal words (kigo) and use cutting characters. In that respect, it is no different from today's haiku, but it is different in that it was created in anticipation of the tsukeku that follow the wakiku, and that it was important to have a high level of style that could lead a volume, such as a hundred verses or a kasen (36 verses). Eventually, when it came to be consciously created as an independent poetic form, the first verse of a linked verse came to be called a tateku (standing verse), and the first verse came to be called a haiku. However, it was only after Shiki Masaoka's haiku reform movement that the name haiku came to be used in conjunction with an essential change in poetic quality.

[Hiroyuki Inui]

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

連歌(れんが)・俳諧(はいかい)用語。最初は短歌の初五文字、のちに同じく上の句（五・七・五）をさしていったが、十七音節（五・七・五）の長句と十四音節（七・七）の短句を交互に付け連ねる連歌・連句が成立すると、その巻頭の長句を、第二句（脇句(わきく)）以下の付句(つけく)と区別して、発句とよぶに至った。短歌の上の句と違い、完結した思想を表現しなければならず、季(き)の詞(ことば)（季語）を詠み込み、切字(きれじ)を用いることが要請された。その点、今日の俳句と異なるところはないが、脇句以下の付句を予想して制作され、百韻(ひゃくいん)なり歌仙(かせん)（三六句）なりの一巻をリードするだけの格調の高さが重んじられた点で、一線を画する。やがて独立の詩形として自覚的に制作されるようになると、連句の第一句はとくに立句(たてく)ともよばれ、発句は俳句とも称されるに至った。しかし俳句の名称が本質的な詩性の変革を伴って用いられるようになったのは、正岡子規(しき)による俳句革新運動以後である。

［乾　裕幸］

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