Kyōka

[1] Tanaka Rokuo suggests the style may have drawn inspiration from gishōka (戯笑歌, "playful and mocking verse"), poetry that targeted guests at banquets where they were read out in an atmosphere similar to that of a roast.

[1] In the late 18th century, the economic policies of senior councillor Tanuma Okitsugu led to a sense of liberation, and various publishing forms flourished during this time.

The earliest and largest collection was the Manzai kyōka-shū (万載狂歌集, "Wild Poems of Ten Thousand Generations") that Akara edited and had published in 1783.

[4] Most of the humour lies either in placing the vulgar or mundane in an elegant, poetic setting, or by treating a classical subject with common language or attitudes.

[2] The following example demonstrates how Ki no Sadamaru (紀定丸, 1760–1841) used a well-known waka poem by the classical poet Saigyō (1118–1190) from the Shin Kokin Wakashū (1205) as a honka:[5] In the original, Saigyō had broken a branch from a cherry tree on Mount Yoshino in modern Nara to remind himself of a prime cherry-viewing spot; when he returns the next year, he chooses instead to go cherry-blossom viewing in an area he had not been to before.