Ryūka

Ryūka (琉歌, lit. "Ryūkyū song/poem"^?) is a genre of songs and poetry originating from the Okinawa Islands, Okinawa Prefecture of southwestern Japan. Most ryūka are featured by the 8-8-8-6 syllable structure.

The word ryūka (ruuka in archaic pronunciation) was first attested in the Kon-kōken-shū (1711). The name came into use when Ryūkyū's pechin class in Shuri and Naha embraced Japanese high culture including waka. It is analogous with the Japanese custom of contrasting Japanese poetry (waka or yamato-uta) with Chinese poetry (kara-uta). There is abundant evidence that ryūka was simply referred to as uta (songs and/or poems) in colloquial use.

In its original form, ryūka was songs to be sung with sanshin, rather than poems to be read aloud. Thus it is more comparable with Japanese imayō, kinsei kouta and dodoitsu than with waka. The composers of ryūka were not only those in the upper class, but also included a girl who was sold to the red-light district called Yoshiya Chiru and a woman farmer of passion called Onna Nabe. However, the male members of the pechin class in Shuri and Naha started to read ryūka just like waka. They hold utakai, or a gathering for reading a collection of poems on a common theme, for both ryūka and waka. Some famous ryūka poets like Heshikiya Chōbin and Motobu Chōkyū were also waka poets.

Researchers disagree on the scope of ryūka. In the narrowest definition, it only refers to songs and poems with the 8-8-8-6 syllable structure. This standard form is specifically called tanka (短歌, lit. "short song/poem"^?). In a slightly broader definition, ryūka also covers nakafū (仲風^?), which typically has the 7-5-8-6 or 5-5-8-6 syllable patterns. It is a hybrid of waka (first two units) and ryūka (second two units). The invention of nakafū was traditionally attributed to the 18th century poet Heshikiya Chōbin, and it was mainly composed by the male members of the pechin class. Another form called chōka (長歌, lit. "long poem"^?) is characterized by a series of 8-8 syllable patterns with a 6-syllable unit at the end. There are some 20 chōka in the records.

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