Senryu: Poems of the People

Senryu are Japanese poems of the haiku form. Although haiku preceded senryu by about 100 years, the evolution of the latter was inevitable, as they deal with concerns not addressed by the more idealistic and spiritually elevated haiku. Senryu can be ironic, poignant, humourous or bitter, but their themes always reflect the everyday concerns of ordinary people, and their concise character portraits of the swaggering samurai, the mean mother-in-law, the lovesick habitue of the gay quarters and the jealous wife, allow an insight into the traditional Japanese life available nowhere else.