[4] Japanese poet and critic Masaoka Shiki revived the term tanka in the early twentieth century for his statement that waka should be renewed and modernized.

Because of an illness, crumbling, this life— if I could give it for the dharma how glad I would be Tanka consist of five units (often treated as separate lines when romanized or translated) usually with the following pattern of on (often treated as, roughly, the number of syllables per unit or line): The 5-7-5 is called the kami-no-ku (上の句, "upper phrase"), and the 7-7 is called the shimo-no-ku (下の句, "lower phrase").

[3][2] Even in early classical compilations of these poems, such as the Ogura Hyakunin Isshu, the form is often broken to suit the poet's preferences.

東海の 小島の磯の 白砂に われ泣きぬれて 蟹とたわむる Tōkai no kojima no iso no shirasuna ni ware naki nurete kani to tawamuru In the Eastern Sea, Of the beach of a small island, On the white sand.

I, my face streaked with tears, Am playing with a crab[8] Masaoka Shiki's (1867–1902) poems and writing (as well as the work of his friends and disciples) have had a more lasting influence.

[9] He praised Minamoto no Sanetomo, the third shōgun of the Kamakura shogunate, who was a disciple of Fujiwara no Teika and composed waka in a style much like that in the Man'yōshū.

Following Shiki's death, in the Taishō period (1912–26), Mokichi Saitō and his friends began publishing a magazine, Araragi, which praised the Man'yōshū.

After World War II, waka began to be considered out-of-date, but since the late 1980s it has revived under the example of contemporary poets, such as Machi Tawara.

The exchanged waka were called Kinuginu (後朝), because it was thought the man wanted to stay with his lover and when the sun rose he had almost no time to put on his clothes on which he had lain instead of a mattress (it being the custom in those days).

At first, Utaawase was playful and mere entertainment, but as the poetic tradition deepened and grew, it turned into a serious aesthetic contest, with considerably more formality.