Waka from Japan,
A six-line unrhymed poem
containing two katauta,
the Sedoka is
much like haiku and tanka,
made of many "fives" and "sevens."
Traditionally a Sedoka will address the same topic from two different perspectives, or discuss two aspects of the same concept, dividing the concept across each three-line katauta. Nature-related imagery is not a requirement of Sedoka, although it is often considered an important feature of the haiku, which was developed later. The syllable pattern of a Sedoka is 5/7/7, 5/7/7.
Kakinomoto Hitomaro is the most noted writer of Sedoka, but the form never became as common as other waka forms. A majority of Sedoka written at the height of the form's popularity are found in Man'yōshū, the oldest existing collection of Japanese poetry, compiled sometime after 759 AD during the Nara period. Many Sedoka were written to be interpreted as dialogues between separate persons or characters. Kanji for Sedoka is 旋頭歌, which has been translated variously as "whirling head poem" and "head-repeated poem."
Iron Noder 2016, 9/30